On Friday night, the Walnut Room hosted an all local showcase of purely instrumental bands. Sometimes instrumental music gets a bad rap, thanks to it often being relegated to the background in situations like elevator music, but there are plenty of instances where instrumentalism can stand out on its own. Lead singer/guitarist Bryon Parker of the local band Accordion Crimes brought up a good point on this subject; when used correctly, an instrument is a musician's voice - it is the medium they'll use to communicate their craft. Such was the case for the bands featured Friday night, as there was nothing superficial about the way each band presented their instrumental music.

Cult of the Lost Cause

The evening began with an opening set from local instrumental rock group Cult of the Lost Cause. The trio of Thom Mc (bass), Michael Salazar (drums) and Mhyk (guitar) created instrumental post-rock that was somewhere in between progressive rock and sludge metal - a combination of intricate song structures and irregular time signatures mated with a heavily distorted and deliberate sound that was dark yet forceful. All three instruments were featured in the foreground at one point or another, allowing each musician to showcase their skills while layering well with each other.

Cult of the Lost Cause

Their set began with a couple previously released songs before the band explored new material. "Apache Jazz" started the night, a piece that began with a slow tempo and noisy desert-rock style guitar that increased with intensity as the song broke into a tribal-like rhythm with howling tremolo picked guitar. Next came "First Day of the Flood", scaling back the tempo a little further to create an atmospheric sound like the calm before a storm. The slow krautrock like rhythm matched with the harmonics on the guitar and bass sounded like the steady fall of raindrops, and as the tempo increased so did the intensity and a menacing mood.

Cult of the Lost Cause

The last four pieces of their set were newer unreleased songs. The first was a pounding drum driven riff heavy rocker, followed by a song propelled by a rapid guitar riff and rapid drums. They kept the intensity high with the third new song, a piece with a lot of striking technicality from all three instrumentalists - probably the most progressive rock influenced piece in their set. They finished with a piece that slowed it back down, starting out like a psychedelic piece that transformed into a heavy, moody post-metal rocker. Cult of the Lost cause definitely gets their post-rock message across despite not featuring any vocals, and fans of darker, heavier rock should check out this band.

Go Star

Next up was Go Star, an improvisational experimental rock band headed by trumpeter Joshua Trinidad. Joshua Trinidad played trumpet and manipulated electronic effects, joined by Enoc Torraca on bass, Roger on guitar, and Gregg Ziemba on drums. The quartet played two improvisational pieces both at roughly fifteen minutes each. They created a spaced out future jazz-like sound featuring rhythmic bass and intricate jazzy drumming, heavily effected and scattered guitar, and trumpet work that definitely thought outside of the box.

Go Star

Most of Josh Trinidad's trumpet sounds were routed through an effects box, allowing Josh Trinidad to create celestial atmospheric sounds through loops and filters that one wouldn't expect from a trumpeter. The set was like going back in time, watching a jam session of experienced jazz musicians in the back of a cafe, only these particular musicians had access to technology that early jazz musicians couldn't even dream of. Go Star is definitely a band that needs to be experienced live, as the dynamic these musicians have cause the music to go in spontaneous but fascinating directions. If you have an appreciation for jazz, Go Star will give you the forward-thinking jazz experience.

Micro Marauder

Micro Marauder took the stage next, and put together a set that expanded on the future jazz theme. Micro Marauder performed as a duo; guitarist David Thomas Bailey and drummer Dean Hirschfield. The two created music steeped in post-jazz, creating an impressively expansive experimental sound despite the apparent limitations of only having two people. Dean Hirschfield exhibited impressive skill not only on the drum set, but as a percussionist in general, using an array of other percussion techniques - even utilizing sounds from children's toys. David Thomas Bailey showcased his mind-blowing skill on a seven string guitar, able to create the sound of two instruments - guitar and bass - at the same time utilizing a single guitar. He would simultaneously play a bass line by plucking the lower strings of his guitar with his thumb, while using his fingers to play guitar melodies and chords.

Micro Marauder

The resulting sound was an delectable post-jazz stew - a beautiful concoction of experimental rock. The set began with "Fuck That Garbage Truck", a psychedelic jazz-rock piece that introduced the crowd to their expansive sound. The next piece showed off even more creativity, as Dean Hirschfield started using an array of varied percussion techniques, including looping an animal sound from a baby toy, playing a gong, using miscellaneous shakers and rattles, oh, and of course playing his drum set. Meanwhile, David Thomas Bailey played a introspective jazz guitar with a psychedelic sound and a galaxial effect. More exploratory sound creation continued - Dean Hirschfield used a chicken toy to create a sound at one point, while David Thomas Bailey wedged a ring in between his strings to generate high notes well outside of the normal range of a guitar. The Micro Marauder sound is definitely out there and very experimental, but if you have an appreciation for extreme musicianship, the things this band does is really quite bedazzling.

Panal S.A. de C.V.

The last band of the night was the headlining instrumental rock group Panal S.A. de C.V. This four-piece band featured Enrique Jimenez (guitar), Juan Carlos Flores (guitar/keyboards/effects), Israel Jimenez (drums/keyboard), and Enoc Torraca (bass). This band created experimental post-rock instrumentals that featured a multitude of influences; psych-rock, progressive, post-metal, Latin-rock and more. The band worked in perfect sync with each other to create songs that were more like epic sonic journeys than collections of songs. Their songs have the ability to suck the listener in, taking them wherever Panal S.A. de C.V. pleases on their odysseys of sound.

Panal S.A. de C.V.

Not only does this band exhibit instrumental prowess, but they know how to put on one heck of an immersive show with the addition of stage effects and lighting. The show began with the Walnut Room lights dimmed, as Juan Carlos Flores stood solitary on the stage, creating an atmospheric wall of sound with his guitar that permeated the room like the steady stream of smoke billowing from the fog machine on stage. Slowly the other members of the band joined him, picking up their instruments one by one - adding subtle bits of atmosphere to the out-of-this-world feel to the piece. Then, after a meditative five minutes, the piece burst into celestial psychedelic post-rock as bursts of colored light beamed like star trails from behind the blue-LED light wrapped drum kit of Israel Jimenez.

Panal S.A. de C.V.

That tantalizing introduction was followed by the performance of "No Puedo Ser", a beautiful guitar driven post-rock waltz that despite its instrumental nature (although there were some sound clips in Spanish I did not understand), seemed to tell a sad love story. No Puedo Ser translates to 'it cannot be' in English, and that's exactly how I felt at this point of Panal S.A. de C.V.'s show - as what I was seeing and hearing was so perfect, it was almost surreal.

Panal S.A. de C.V.

Next came "Alpenglow", a piece that combined psychedelic rock with the seductive danceability of Latin music. This piece featured live guitar looping from Enrique Jimenez and a section where drummer Israel Jimenez left his kit to play the keyboard. The trip continued with the melodic "Black Sand", a psych-meets-western post-rock piece that started out ethereal but ended with deliberate fervor. Next came "Vox Pouli", a piece that combined krautrock with a progressive post-rock style, before ending with the funky yet aggressive post-metal piece "You Knew I Was A Snake", which closed the band's set with amazing energy. This band definitely embodies the idea that instruments can be a voice in themselves, and their voices were heard loud and clear. This is an amazing rock band that I highly recommend anyone to see.

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