Photos by Kevin Lincoln
The second night of Hammer No More the Finger's "Friends of Hammer festival"/CD release party (for debut LP Looking For Bruce) dominated the Coffeehouse last night. The event—comprised of five bands over a lengthy but energetic five hours—featured Viking Storm Ale brewed by sponsor Triangle Brewing Company, the UNC-Villanova game projected onto a screen behind opening-opening act The Beast and a number of concertgoers dressed up in their best Viking attire. Attendance was somewhat sparse at the beginning, but over the course of the evening the Coffeehouse grew filled to capacity, culminating in a packed mosh-pit environment for Hammer's set.
Durham's The Beast—taking the stage first of the five, around 9 pm—got the festival started on an upbeat note. The band's fusion of jazz and hip-hop was a fitting showcase for MC Pierce Freelon's politically love-oriented lyrics and his lively stage presence. Freelon made multiple references to the Viking theme, obtaining on separate instances an axe and a horned helmet from the audience, and his best piece of crowd banter came when he urged the crowd to "put your motherf---ing Viking Ales in the sky!" He sported a gray tank-top with "VS", for Viking Storm, written on it in big, bleeding letters, and The Beast finished their set with a rendition of Hammer's death-metal ode to the weekend's motif, "We Pray for Viking Storm."
Next up was Washington, D.C.'s Deleted Scenes. It was clear that the crowd was less familiar with these guys than the other four acts, which are all mainstays of the Durham scene, and this only made it more impressive when they successfully managed to captivate the building. Vocalist/guitarist Dan Scheuerman was a man possessed on stage, contorting his face, falling into the drumset and collapsing to the floor on multiple occasions. His sharp, passionate howl was entrancing, but the four-piece's tight stomp had everyone moving when they stepped up the tempo. Plus, their drummer sported the evening's most intense beard, an honorable achievement at events like this. Keep an eye on these guys: a recent 8.0 from Pitchfork for latest album Birdseed Shirt never hurts.
Deleted Scenes were followed by Durham's the Dry Heathens. Churchkey Records co-owner Steve Jones plays bass and provides vocals in the band, and they embody the beer-soaked, DIY mentality of the Durham scene. Case in point: their performance of fist-pumping anthem "Splendid Little War," named for Ambassador John Hay's evaluation of the Spanish-American War—such a good song that I could've sworn it was a cover of some Meat Puppets or Replacements classic—sent the audience into hysterics with its chorus of, "Run around run around run around wasted all day long." The manic grins that Jones and guitarist Steve Oliva traded throughout the show were contagious.
The Future Kings of Nowhere was the final band to precede Hammer. The five members (making them the largest band of the evening) were all dressed in identical football pants and purple t-shirt jerseys, bearing names and numbers. Outside of Hammer, these guys probably got the crowd most excited; concertgoers were singing along and throwing their arms up to shambling acoustic ballads like "10 Simple Murders" and "Paper Napkins." The lineup fluctuates around frontman Shayne O'Neill, whose yelps and impressive lyrics were clearly the outfit's center of orbit, but their Viking Storm iteration was strong. For a band that's been out of commission for a little while, the trumpet, trombone, keyboard, guitar, tambourine and drums all blended well, and the reception was so enthusiastic that a "One more song!" chant from the crowd got them back onto the stage for an encore (yep, an encore by an opening act). The band has labeled its style as "acousticore," although when I used this moniker with Coffeehouse Booking Manager Jen Fuh she recoiled and insisted that "anti-folk" is a better description. Antifolkcousticore, anyone?
After four hours of anticipation, Hammer No More the Fingers did not disappoint. Their set began with an intro video featuring clips of vikings that someone told me were culled from commercials; such a drawing point would be perfect for Hammer's goofy pastiche. Shadows of drummer Jeff Stickley posing with toy axes and his horned helmet shone past the projector screen he was positioned behind, and at the end of the video guitarist Joe Hall and bassist/vocalist E. Duncan Webster took the stage with Tooth "Hollerer" JME Guptill, who sure enough hollered his way through "We Pray for Viking Storm." A number of other costumed individuals crowded the stage, and this opening song served as an epic mission statement/firestarter for the rest of their performance. After the metal cooled down, the trio launched straight into their own brand of angular 90's-aping alt-rock, and the Coffeehouse pretty much devolved into one giant mosh-pit. Chronicle reporters could be seen hurriedly protecting their cameras and retreating from the shirtless, drenched-in-hours-of-sweat inebriated Viking superfans, more than one instance of crowd-surfing threatening the overhead lights. Through it all everyone in the building was obviously overjoyed. A hell of a night from some of the best components of Durham's burgeoning musical repertoire.
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