ISIS @ Le National

By K-Man - "Beyond That Graveyard! III" - 04/26/2006

April 26th 2006 and I get to finally see a show at Le National. Opposite Beaudry metro, I'm deep, deep in the Village now. It's raining and me and my boys are hungry. We hit this cool little Vietnamese place just east of the venue; the authenticity of this place is mind-boggling, right down to the music. It turns out to be a classic sake night.

We spill out of the restaurant and into Le National just as the opening acts are done. The founder and owner of Alien 8 Records informs me that we didn't miss much, the opening bands did their best... yadda, yadda, yadda. The time for Isis is nigh so we get the drink situation cleared up ASAP and find ourselves a good spot on the weirdly slanted floor of this ancient theatre. This is the third time they have played here and the first show they ever played anywhere was Quebec City (not Boston, go figure). Needless to say, these five dudes from Boston have a certain affinity towards us Quebs.

Lights go down and the show starts off nice and slow; the place is pretty much sold out and the floor space is tight. By their first crescendo the crowd is weaving back and forth as one -- you could cut the cheese factor with a bloody knife at this point, in a gouda way. The tunes are spacey and the playing is fluid and they are sounding just like their CDs: polished and tight. With a keyboard player that switches to a guitar every few songs, you gotta love hearing three guitars doing their thing all at once. The layering was thick and rich. They break heavy and heads start to bob in that classic headbanger way. I'm living it (a little). All I'm thinking, they better play that song that I like so much, "In Fiction", and lo and behold, they play it. I'm good for the night. Isis.... good, sake.... good, the meat.... was good.

I have to say though, these guys from Isis have to stop contorting on stage as they do; they all had the same basic move on stage that of someone dying of a migraine. Weaving back and forth like they just can't shake it off... they looked a little like the Blue Man Group and somebody was gonna get covered in paint.

They create atmosphere, then drive it home in a heavy way. I liked this show and those guys are a talent together that will probably get better before worse. I expect good things for them in the future and they are definitely worth going to see live.

[Tune in to Beyond That Graveyard III every Friday 9pm to Midnight.]