isis live

Once news of Isis visiting Poland to play a show in the Proxima Club, in Warsaw reached me, I immediately put the date down in my mind. This was something I could not miss - my favorite band visiting a nearby club to play a show, a perfect chance to see them live.

Once the fateful day came...

The club was quite full by the time I got there. People gathered around drinks and chatted. I was alone, with noone to talk to, but I felt at ease. Most of them looked fairly normal, I didn't notice any obvious metalheads... There were of course pairs, some people wore Isis shirts, I noticed a Tool Aenima t-shirt as well.

The first supporter was Mamiffer, who began to play rather early. A cute keyboardist woman, a drummer with several strange tools, chains and other metal props and a man with bushy hair, a bushy beard and what seemed to be one of Aaron Turner's guitars, played with an E-bow. Their music was strongly based around the sound of a piano, but a dense atmosphere was woven by the strange tools the drummer used and the steady hum of an overdriven guitar.

Mamiffer was quietly appreciated and earned quite an applause from the crowd, which I eagerly joined in - really interesting music.

While they played, their music was filled with plenty of strange squeaks. And the same squeaking noises came back when Dalek came out to play. Dalek is a two-man band with one bald, tattooed guy handling two MacBooks and a sound console to process beats and provide a background for a rather overweight rapper. The sound was mostly obscured and I couldn't make out the lyrics. I kept putting down those squeaks as either part of the music or my ears being overloaded.

While Mamiffer ended fairly quickly, Dalek played for quite a long while, as the crowd thickened in anticipation of the main course. Once the support finished, a while of playback music aired. Musicians skulked around the stage, preparing instruments and effects. Among them was the guitarist of Mamiffer, which I thought to be slightly weird. Was he from Isis?

Then, the band gathered. Cheers broke out, eventually cut away by the first riff of Hall of the Dead - and then, the crowd went insane beyond all of my expectations. An intense mosh pit started up and I was on the edge of it, not so much standing as leaning on pretty much everyone in the crowd. And there I was, expecting a mellow crowd of dudes just swinging their heads in rhythm...

Of course, once the band had assembled, I realized that the guitarist was actually Aaron Turner himself. He does make a rather strange impression in his movements. He seemed somewhat removed or absent - not in that vacant, dumb way - it seemed more like he was focused on something else. That lasted until Aaron started getting into the music Isis played and swinging around his guitar - almost like a rock star.

The squeaks persisted thorough the show and I still didn't know where they came from - I still thought it was something with my hearing... However, some of the songs were recognizable - I could make out most of Hand of the Host and Ghost Key, but I couldn't recognize Holy Tears until the vocals came in.

After a powerful finish with Threshold of Transformation, Isis got off the stage - but obviously their stay was too short and they came back, summoned by the crowd's wild "ISIS!!!!!" chanting. They played Carry and Dulcinea. There was a dedication attached to Dulcinea, but I wasn't sure who was it directed at.

After the show, I felt positively drained... It was incredibly intense, even despite the shitty sound engineering - which was, as I learned later, responsible for the screeching noises. I regret not sticking around, though, as apparently you could meet Isis after the gig somewhere...