Lightning Bolt / Mindflayer / Kites / Wizzards / Animental / Nifty / Larry Marshall

When the respective solo projects of minimal metal bass'n'drums powerhouse duo Lightning Bolt - Mindflayer and Wizzards - got billed to appear at Neutral with a slew of other acts, people started wondering if there might be an impromptu performance by the good kings Lightning Bolt themselves. Sure enough, Toronto message boards were buzzing with excited verification - Lightning Bolt were going to tear it up. And holy shit did they ever! But in the beginning, Larry Marshall, looking like he came fresh off the set of Willow, draped solo acoustic psych-folk wonderment over the few listeners present who weren't more concerned with how they looked or the latest gossip. Next up was local open-door solo act Nifty, who had some friends come join him for a bit of abrasive beat deconstruction. The four NYC women who are Animental dressed up in folk-y costumes and acted out a fairy tale to swooshes and drones before getting behind their rock instruments and kicking serious ass. Likewise, Wizzards (bassist Brian Gibson with members of Bug Sized Minds) and Mindflayer (drummer Brian Chippendale and Forcefield noisemaker Matt Brinkman) both kicked pseudo-Lightning Bolt ass with their wicked set-up of amps. And between them fellow Providence act Kites caused shit by hitting the hipster-filled capacity crowd with some aurally damaging harsh noise and confrontational attitude (dude karate kicked a drink out of some antagonising guy's hand!), but it was all warm up for Lightning Bolt, and fuck did they bring the heat. The place erupted into a killer mosh pit, people were trying to tear down the rows of lights, and the new material was full-out fucking amazing. This is the kind of show people will be talking about for years.