#gnarfest

AUGUST 2, 2014 - LOGAN SQUARE, USA

In front of stoic carvings of Indians, laborers and missionaries, encased in rolling clouds of exhaled smoke and surrounded from every angle by fans, DIY enthusiasts and curious locals, Bongripper stomped through a menacing 30 minute set.

There couldn't be a more fitting place than the Logan Square monument - a latent ode to Native American genocide, Catholic tyranny, industrial upheaval, meat-packing, coal, sweat, tears and all the undersides of "progress" - to watch Bongripper's doom metal epics.

Not that anyone needed a history lesson to appreciate their glacial-paced songs. At the start of the set, sparse bass drum kicks held us in suspense over the guitar's steady trudge - each soul predicting and anticipating when the wave would hit. Several minutes later, with no more foresight than a snare roll, the group slammed full force. A thousand heads nodded - many failing to hold back their grins.

Chord changes were not very common in either of the 15-some-minute-long pieces. As with most doom metal, monotony was a an exploited theme. The song development, however, was tough to pin down. It was sluggish and nonlinear: Drum fills compounded without giving many hints. It was this unpredictable nature that made the peaks all the the more rewarding.

While the music held up on it's own right, it was the sanctity of the gathering that kept the audience enthralled. Huddled 360 degrees around the stage, we watched each other no less than the band. It was a rare moment where we - the broke, timid and over-stimulated millenials - conquered the public sphere. And with that privilege we stood mostly sober (save discrete sips of beer and weed) to appreciate the breakdown of internet-age pace and the sheer enormity capable of four men with instruments.

Five miles southeast, Lollapalooza-goers were elbowing each other to fill water bottles, fretting over lost flip-flops and cursing double-booked sets. Hosted the same weekend as Gnarfest, Lolla never felt so irrelevant.

It's nice to grow up and realize how else we can spend a summer night.