Okay I will readily admit that I was extremely late on hoping on to the Chelsea Wolfe bandwagon-train thing. I know her album Apokalypsis, was on pretty much everybody’s 2011 best of list, but forget all that non-sense. I discovered Apokalypsis back in May of this year and it is absolutely addicting. It’s one of those albums that I can’t seem to get sick of listening to and it still hasn’t left my rotation of tunes.
Now with all that out of the way, I was stoked to see that Chelsea Wolfe was extending her tour after a run with label mates Russian Circles and Marriages (probably a good thing this tour didn’t come to SLC, because I would have had an aneurysm of awesomeness right in front of the stage), and even though I would have loved to see all three bands play, seeing Chelsea Wolfe headline was just as good because, it meant more time for her to play all my favorites of off Apokalypsis, along with some new tracks to.
On this magical and haunting evening something also happened that had happened since the dawn of man, Isaac and I were actually on time to the show. Which I am extremely grateful for, because we were able
to witness the local opener Light/Black. I had never heard of Light Black before we saw them this fateful evening and I have to say that this band is easily one of the best local bands in SLC. Light/Black is super heavy and dissonant and the vocals provided by bassist Carrie Wakefield are the perfect topping to an already delightfully heavy post-punk sundae. Picture early Helium mixed with Young Widows, so good. Unfortunately they did not have any albums or merch to buy. But, I was informed by their guitarist Levi Lebo that the band is going into the studio soon. So in the meantime I recommend stalking and harassing them on Facebook until they put it out. http://www.facebook.com/LGHTBLCK
Urban was crazy hot this particular night so Isaac and I stepped outside for some fresh air a.k.a. second hand smoke and soon found ourselves wrapped up in an all things music debate and before we knew it we had missed all of the second openers set. So my most humble apologies to Spell Talk.
I had been been excited to sea Chelsea Wolfe for a couple months, after basically listening to Apokalypsis, like 1,000 since discovering it and Wolfe and her amazing band did not disappoint The lights were dimmed down to almost non-existent and the band slowly emerged and creeped into the most eerily haunting intro I have ever experinced in my entire life of going to concerts. After the intense swells of noise the band slowly began sneaking up on a personal favorite song of mine “Movie Screen” and while the recorded version on Apokalypsis is cool, the live rendition was absolutley mind blowing. Seriously watch the video and see for yourself.
Chelsea Wolfe and her amazing band then tore through the majority of 
her catalouge while also sneaking in some new jams, that got me even more psyched for her two new releases that are coming out within the next year or so (review of Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs coming soon).
I need to point out that Chelsea Wolfes’ backing band consisting of Ben Chisholm (keys, bass guitar), Kevin Dockter (lead guitar) and Dylan Fujioka (drums) we as solid and creative as any band I had 
seem in sometime. It’s not even fair to call them a backing band becuase a lot of what they do is the highlight of the show. The band along with Wolfe herself were able to add so many new and interesting twists to the recorded versions of the songs that I had just recently memorized, that it was like hearing a whole new set of songs. Wolfe’s vocals and guitar playing were also solid and spot on throughout. Their whole performance was like watching a technically proficient organic version of 
Portishead’s Roseland NYC Live unfold right before my eyes. The mood of this show was consistent and top notch, it was dark moody and somber throughout and I honestly couldn’t have asked for anything more. I am genuinely excited to absorb more new recorded music from the band and in the future be there front and center at the next live show to see how they are able to mutate the new batch of songs once again… Did I mention this show was dark?