THERE are heaps of ways to die in Denver, but growing old anonymously isn’t going to be the fate of the hard-core outfit Planes Mistaken for Stars.
At the Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday night, this Colorado act laid down a set of original, uncompromised hard rock songs that conveyed musical urgency and artistic passion.
PMFS is a quartet, featuring vocalist Gared O’Donnell backed by a bass/guitar/drum setup. Where Planes separate themselves from other headbangers is in their understanding that they can build a wall of noise higher if they use silence as mortar between the rock.
Time after time in their set, playing that trick allowed the music to build momentum and the fans to develop a sense of anticipation. The sudden stops that folded the music into unusual shapes occasionally fooled the crowd into eruptions of premature applause. Yet those crescendos mistaken for finales also created audience excitement.
Not everyone in the house appreciated the band.
One young man used one of those inter-song silences as an opportunity to shout, “You suck!” – but the closing cheers rubbed out the jeers.
What the “you suck” kid was probably saying was he thought too many of the songs had a similar tenor. That sameness came from the band’s use of vocal filters that created the effect that O’Donnell was channeling Satan.
Some bands use this electronic device because their singer can’t sing, but that’s not the case here. During the final song of the set, “Say Not a Word,” (from their latest album “Up in Them Guts”), O’Donnell flipped off the gizmo and proved he has fair range and keeps in key.
Maybe the band, being young, doesn’t get that there is an element of dishonesty in wearing that kind of electronic mask.
Gared: If ya got the voice, flaunt it. Sure, all the other hard-core band singers use the devil voice, but in concert that attack can flatten music and make the lyrics unclear.
As for the others, drumming by chunky Mikey Ricketts and the bass work by thin, sweat-soaked Chuck French gave the music its bone-breaking crunch.
Second guitar Matt Bellinger – who felt the need for bare-chested fret work – wove some intricate riffs with O’Donnell.
Visually, these two are the guys to watch in Planes. Both make the ugly face as they rip liquid guitar riffs, but it’s hard to catch since they stay in constant motion attempting to whip the floor with their hair.
These guys stand the chance of actually becoming stars – plain and simple.