So it did end up taking a little longer for me to get to the third and final concert review from that awesome September weekend in Boston out the door. Travel and just general life chaos will do that to ya. But… we’re here now! This was the one show I had been anticipating not all weekend, but since the tour was announced. Amenra, one of my favorite bands ever, on a headlining run that I can actually get myself to. Pile it on with the crushing weight of Primitive Man and the haunting nature of Blackwater Holylight and we had ourselves quite the evening.

Let’s set the scene one more time. The day was spent… not doing a whole lot! Wake up. Edit photos. Wander for coffee. Return to the hotel. Edit more photos. Eventually, at some point in the afternoon, I finally packed up my shit up for the day and night and made the walk to Central Square for good, certainly a different area of Cambridge than the night before, but a good one all the same. This night’s show was at The Middle East Downstairs, one venue within the overall Middle East… campus? Some may recall all those late nights I’ve spent Upstairs, for instance. Strangely enough I still haven’t caught a show at Sonia. The unfortunate thing? Green Lung happened to be playing in that adjacent venue this same night. Just bad luck. As for the Downstairs space? It’s one of my favorites. One of those decent sized venues (capacity >500) that feels smaller in the right way. Not to shit on it (again) in comparison, but the Brighton Music Hall feels smaller in the wrong way. Instead of feeling cramped with awkward vantage points, Downstairs still has plenty of space to wander, the bars are set back enough to not be completely in the way, and the elevated area on one side of the stage means that if you happen to be off-center? You at least have a raised viewing angle. Aside from that, I don’t know if it’s just me in response to dim house lights and the depth of the standing room in front of the stage, but the ceiling feels lower and as a result it’s just a loud venue. Wherever you post up you simply feel the weight of what’s coming from the stage. It’s awesome. So yeah! One of my favorite venues and one of my favorite bands.

As I launch into the bands themselves, just a quick note of appreciation for three-set shows. It’s just a really good number. In this context it feels like the right balance to offer variety in full performances, without becoming overwhelming (or oversaturated) with too many bands with brief set times. To that point, Blackwater Holylight kicked things off. Familiar in name only beforehand, I was looking forward to hearing their sound quite literally for the first time. It did not disappoint. It was sound and a set that wandered within the spaces of the dark and haunting. At times the intensity would be thrust forward and pour across and off of the front of stage, but these moments all eventually settled back into a state of melancholic beauty. The visual performance emphasized some the psychedelic tones of BWHL’s style, making the whole package quite mesmerizing. Naturally, in the aftermath of this set I have spent A LOT of time with their catalog, especially Silence/Motion. Have I been able to replicate the experience of seeing this sound performed live? Not even remotely close. But without a doubt Blackwater Holylight have been one of my favorite discoveries in 2024 because of this set.

And then we had the absolute destruction of Primitive Man. I’ve missed PM. For awhile there it seemed like I was catching them at least a couple of times each year. But it had been a minute! Half a decade? More? Probably more! Silly me. Apparently I had forgotten how much weight they actually bring. And in this venue, for all the reasons mentioned above, it felt even heavier. In fact, it felt even heavier than their sets I’ve seen at the Middle East Upstairs, the tiny (but incredible) 194 person capacity space. Wave after unrelenting wave of crushing death sludge. Primitive Man “sets” have always felt more like a continuous composition rather than a series of individual songs, and this set was no different. There simply was no respite. And I tried! I wandered all corners of the venue (yes, partly for the camera thing), and there wasn’t a square foot I could find that felt any less punishing than another. It was awesome. Remember how I said I missed Primitive Man? Yeah. I did.

I’ll preface the overview of the Amenra set but stating quite plainly that there is simply no articulating what the experience was like. I’ve said elsewhere that as much fun as this weekend was, it was also packed with emotion – a result of the juxtaposition of chaos and calm over these three days, and what has been quite the year (so far). All of that came forward in me as I was taking in this part of the evening. The final chapter of this weekend. If I could curate my own Amenra setlist, given all of that, this is what it would look like. Spanning Mass IIII through De Doorn, it was truly perfect. While “Boden” might be a familiar opener, the effect cannot be denied. The mysterious and steady build eventually giving way to the eruption of raw intensity that defines the Amenra style is without question the ideal way to lead into their set. Incorporating the anguish of tracks like “Razoreater” alongside their more introspective and melodic offerings like “A Solitary Reign”, all performed with CHVE facing away from the audience, disconnected within scattered light yet still within an arms reach, made the entire set an emotional endeavor that no other band can replicate. It was, simply, everything. It was a release of my own energy in response that I have not experienced at a show in years. My favorite live band – arguably my favorite band period – delivering a set more impressive and powerful than even I could have anticipated or prepared for.

And with that, now well more than a month out, my weekend immersed in Boston has been officially covered. Three very different nights and three very different concerts. The entire sequence could not have played out any differently. It had to be this way, ending with these sets… and this Amenra set specifically. And guess what?! I can’t wait to do it again soon.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb