O'Brother On A Roll

by Nicki Hymowitz

Photo Courtesy Of O'Brother's Facebook

On Wednesday night, November 16, Georgia rock band O’ Brother hit the Paradise Rock Club stage—hard. The Boston concert was just one of 35 cities on The Dillinger Escape Plan’s final tour, which also features Cult Leader, Car Bomb, Entheos and Bent Knee.

I knew it would be a wild night when the man letting me in told me “not to punch anyone in the face.”

The audience was extremely passionate about the intense rock music, banging their heads throughout and singing the few lyrics that appeared. People crowd surfed one by one while intense mosh pits rocketed everyone across the room. Thankfully, in between there was about a 10 minute break after each opener, giving the crowd time to take in the experience before going back to the head banging. O’ Brother was able to capture the audience with its overall heavy performance in between soft vocals. The show was able to attract many types of audiences from nicely dressed men in plaid and khakis to rocker beanie types.

The audience didn’t really know what to expect when O’ Brother came out, being the last opener before The Dillinger Escape Plan. In the first few notes, you could see the mesmerizing emotion and drips of sweat coming down the band members’ faces. I’ve never witnessed such an instant connection between an audience and the artist at a concert before. Looking around the audience you could see them feeling every note being transformed into their own world of illusion. At points during their set, you could hear quiet vocals that made you feel as if you were in another world, and then all of a sudden the mood would change back to that intense and aggressive sound. The lead vocalist would stop every so often to say how thankful they were to be joining The Dillinger Escape Plan on their final tour.

This tour came just in time to promote O’ Brother’s third album titled Endless Light. The album features 11 new tracks, which including “Slow Sin” and “Bloodlines”—two which showcase a mix of heavy and toned-down sounds. Lead Vocalist Tanner Merrit discussed that the band really wanted to get rid of piling the instruments just to make more noise and instead have the tracks sound cleaner using empty space. Having done this, the listener is able to clearly hear every instrument without one powering over the other, ultimately making the layers of the instruments together all the more powerful. O’ Brother’s set was a perfect glimpse into the album, which by the end will only make you want to listen to more.

For more information about the bands music and upcoming shows go to www.obrothermusic.net