Two metal supergroups with deep Northwest rock roots will be planting themselves in Bremerton along with the local Sower of Dischord Saturday night at Winterland.
With a combined list of rock-cred as voluminous as that which emits from their amps, the forces of Seattle bands Plaster and Witchburn matched with Kitsap’s own Sower could possibly melt one’s face clean off.
Both Plaster and Witchburn were formed from the ranks of other revered and talented Northwest outfits; Sower of Dischord is a somewhat darker incarnation of the Bremer-band — Earthwreck.
One thing they all have in common, each band has recorded and released demos with Tony Reed at Temple Sound Studio in Port Orchard.
“First off, it will be loud and heavy, it’s going to be a guitar night for sure,” Reed said of Saturday. “Sower will be bring the sludge/doom feel, Plaster has an up-tempo grunge thing happening and Witchburn has a mid-tempo heavy rock groove going on.”
Witchburn, established earlier this year, combines the stinging vocals of Jamie Nova, lead singer for the famed cover band Hell’s Belles, with the fierce metal six-string licks of Mischa Kianne and heavy drums of Matt Bos. Kianne and Bos are both of the former infectious and energetic metal Seattle sextet — Drop Six, which played with the likes of Mudvayne, Static X and Powerman 5000 before their 2006 breakup.
All of that classic and hard rock influence and experience is taken to sacred ground with Witchburn and stoked with a prong of Southern Rock.
Plaster, on the other hand, is a self-described “classic metal band” with a new-school sheen, est. 2004. The group touts a former member of Coffin Break — which played its first show with NOFX in 1987 and its last with The Supersuckers in the early ‘90s — another of the RC 5 — a beloved Seatte-born garage band which released seven records from 1998-2004 while getting shout outs in rags like Spin, Seattle Weekly, the New Yorker and even the Washington Post — and also one from Pitch Factor. Most recently drummer Dana Sims of the Jet City Fix joined in.
From that wide original-punk-rock-to-80s-glam-revival experience, Plaster has a somewhat surprisingly newer metal sound, though they couldn’t really be fully classified new or old school.
“I don’t think we are in either camp since we love both the old and new school of rock and metal,” said Pete Litwin, Plaster guitarist/vocalist, former member of Coffin Break.
“We all bring so many influences to the band which makes up the unique defined sound of Plaster,” added Todd Ohashi, guitarist, former RC5er.
Not the goopy, splatting, scraping sound your hearing if you think literally, this Plaster sounds more like a stomping and shouting melody.
Definitely something one can bang their head to.
And something you just might want to literally bang your head to if you listen intently to the lyrics. A tiny sample: “Don’t breathe easy … life ain’t easy.” For more go online at www.myspace.com/plasterseattle.
“I usually try to think of an unpleasant experience or unsettling feelings for inspiration,” Litwin said, noting the darkness of the music. “Honestly, at this point in my life I find it more difficult to write lyrics because in general I only write when I am sad or angry, and for the most part, I am now a pretty happy person.”
Litwin may have to hold that happiness at arms length until the end of this year however as Plaster has signed on with Emerald City producer Steve Carter — who’s worked with bands like Himsa and Cradle of Filth — for a record due out in 2008.
Plaster will be bringing some of those new songs to Kitsap at 9:30 p.m. Sept. 29, on a return to Winterland after sonically slaying the house at its last show there.
