Noothgrush

Founded in 1994, San Jose, CA's Noothgrush had languished in torpor for years before finally playing three shows -- their first in ten years -- in 2011. It seems the band carried all the frustration and pent-up energy of those years around with them, so that the festered, swollen energy could be released on the crowd. While many talk about a wall of sound, Noothgrush create something more like a wave, the music breaking over the audience like something wet and viscous, muscular and smothering. Chiyo Nakuga's drumming drove the set forward like a task master, her sticks vicious as wire whips; the huge, wallowing riffs seems to yelp in pain as they surged forward. The crowd pushed forward to meet the sound, and both the audience and the music broke against each other.