by Andrew Miller
Life at these Speeds
Thurs Mar 18
Club Awesome
215 SE 9th
After opening with five seconds of benign amplifier hum, Life at these Speeds’ self-titled release shifts into immediate overdrive. Hearing such intense shrieks and riffs after that placid preface is as disconcerting as tuning in when a television station switches from a just-finished golf tournament to a wild action movie already in progress. But later, the Portand-based quartet slows substantially. The word “these” in the group’s name communicates that it marches to many different metronomes. Some tracks detonate with alarm-clock impact, others should be outlawed as listening material for anyone operating heavy machinery, and several switch strategies mid-song.
Life at these Speeds’ elastic compositions build tension and stretch it until a point at which the tunes either suddenly snap back into place or break. “Knives” starts with 45 seconds of glacial guitars, builds to a cathartic release, then ends with the best example of piano-afterglow since Faith No More’s “Epic.” Keen ears can almost hear the fish flop.
In Life at these Speeds, vocals seldom stand in the forefront. An untitled instrumental cut provides the most obvious example, but many songs reinforce its vocals-as-supporting-actor approach. During its wordless summits, dual guitars cause friction until the songs swell and burst.
Just as Life at these Speeds begins its album abruptly, it also ends several tracks without warning. “Birds and Climates” feels like an industrial machine that takes time to warm up, then gets shut down just as it approaches maximum power; “Small Sparks” resembles a car attempting to reach freeway-cruise-control acceleration between city stoplights and braking desperately to avoid skidding into an intersection. What’s jarring on disc can be exhilarating on stage, because sudden stops make sense in a setting where gradual fade-out endings don’t exist. Hearing these tracks and seeing them in concert is the difference between fearing for your life during an unexpectedly insane taxi trip and enjoying a stirring yet secure roller-coaster ride.