Budhi
The warm up band. Your average "experimental" band, trying to do their own thing, but they ultimately end up sounding like Pelican except with vocals and decent musicians. It sounds great live, but the EP is ok at most. Check them out here: [link]


Secret Chiefs 3
The set was divided into 3 parts each of them separated by a 5 minute break between them, along with a change of costumes. Trey Spruance, being the perfectionist, always spent more than 30 seconds tuning his instruments and tweaking the amp and stompboxes between songs. This obviously broke the flow of the sets, but it didn't really bother me.

The five musicians are obviously very talented, all of them multi-instrumentalists. Also, I have never seen a drummer with so much energy; most of the songs are very demanding with super tricky parts and this guy played them perfectly.

- 1st set - UR
Dressed up like someone who just came out of a Reservoir Dogs themed party, the 5 musicians enter on stage with a serious face and an almost mechanical behaviour. UR is known to play surf rock themed songs and covers of iconic films. The set kicked off with Book T: Waves of Blood, still with one or two minor sound adjustments needed. From there it went to another Book T song, Broken Glass Hearse, followed by two brilliant covers of movie soundtracks: Exodus and Halloween. The second guitar player changed between instruments, playing the violin and the trumpet as well.

- 2nd set - Ishraqiyun
After a 5 minute wait the band comes back, this time dressed up as some sort of cult; long dark robes with hoods that cover their face and some yield bizarre instruments. Ishraqiyun is another of the 6 bands that compose Secret Cheifs 3 and they play middle eastern influenced compositions. The 3, The 4, Balance of the 19... all of them were performed flawlessly.

- 3rd set - Book M, extended versions and encore
In this third and final set, the group is dressed up normally and represent the Secret Chiefs 3 as a whole. (I think.) This set included the more electronic-oriented stuff, along with a few extended improv versions of Book M songs, which lasted for about 10 minutes each. Here, the more "experimental" side of SC3 appeared, with moments ranging from pure bliss to complete cacophony. As for the encore, we were treated with another UR song performed with even more energy than the first ones.


Overall a great concert. The only negative thing about it is that it didn't last longer. (as in, more than 2 hours.)