Akron/Family Bring the Noise

It was indeed a family affair at Richard's last night as the rambling crew of nomads known as Akron/Family rolled into town for their third time in a year and a half. Swelling from the core four, the NYC-based band have picked up a few extra players on the road and a pile more in the club. The result is a seven-piece band that can bring the noise - in a big way.

Cacophonous moments of bliss exorcised from their guitars went from sudden bursts between pin-drop quiet to walls of trance-inducing noise stretching for little eternities. The songs never stayed still, letting space breathe throughout the music and it changed up, a lot. I've never seen a band break out a bodhran, a few First Nations drums, djembe, Tibetan bells and penny whistles before silencing the crowd with a cappella harmonies that were just as crushing. More after the jump...

Everything about Akron/Family is rooted in spirit. Lyrics and themes take their cures from Tantric Buddhism, Zen meditation and, on the new album "Love is Simple", directly from the words of controversial Lama Traktung Rinpoche.

Akron/Family really tap the spirit of a common voice and the audience at Richard's was enthusiastic to say the least. Funny thing though, as the lengthy mid-set opus of noise/improv/feedback (culled from their excellent tour CD "Om") wailed on, the audience noticeably thinned, but those remaining - the ones who got it; the faithful, if you will - were moved, taken in and became part of the surging band whose energy only grew to the very last sound.

They played from all their records, but the closing punch of "Raising the Sparks/Ed is a Portal" after two hours could not be contained solely through the band. Bells were out, drums pounded, mics were put to the crowd and had that new hardwood floor not been nailed down it could have provided the fuel for a bonfire, front and centre.

Just when it was about to wrap, a couple shots on the drums and bassist Miles Seaton rushed back, clearly excited to keep going - "Oh, are we gonna freak out now?" he asked the already rumbling band. As if the last hours did not count, the grin grew wider when his enthusiasm was justified with another blast of "love, love, love" and the songs that seemed to bounce off the North Shore mountains echoed back in the night.

Photo by Bhlubarber (that's me) from the Beyond Robson Flickr Pool