By Sami Martasian

It was a strange scene at Charlie’s Monday night, but a memorable one for sure. The cramped (but thankfully air conditioned) room was bursting at the seams with familiar faces of the Boston music scene, all excited to see their friends’ bands bring down the proverbial house. The night got kicked off with the Craters; an act that was new to my friends and I, and boy it was a great set to get started on. The Craters brought some cooling melodies and well crafted  guitar work to the table.

Kal Marks’s set was so enchanting that I totally forgot that Men in Black was playing on the TV behind the bar. In a live setting, their sound is incredibly dense. It was difficult to focus on anything but the suspense of what the next turn each song would take. At moments when things got quiet or slowed down, we paused our head banging accordingly and felt our muscles tense in anticipation of whatever powerful huge sound would break through the hushed room. Kal Marks is the kind of band that rides the line between extremely well rehearsed and intuitive. Its clear after mere moments of watching them play that they know their songs and how to communicate with each other to get the flow just right, but they also don’t seem stiflingly tight. There’s space in their songs for every member of the band to get in the groove and feel things out. Their timing was always perfect, but not rigid. By the end of the set I was a little worn out and not fully convinced that anyone or anything could follow Kal Marks’ set in a satisfying way. I was painfully wrong.

Dust from 1,000 Years set up, humbly getting their gear through the crowd and apologizing as people had to move out of their way. Not being familiar with their music and still thinking about Kal Marks, I was prepared to be underwhelmed. When everything was in order they just plunged into their set. I immediately felt stupid for not checking them out earlier and a deep regret for every moment of my life spent not listening to Dust From 10,000 years. When a band is just two musicans they both have to be so on top of their game to fully rock a show and I want it on record that Dust From 1,000 Years did just that. The drumming was unreal. All of us had our eyes glued to the mirror behind the stage space that lines all of Charlie’s in disbelief of the drummer’s movements. At times he picked up various percussion instruments from a table and worked them flawlessly into the song. Every second of their set was overwhelming. The seamless drumming, the building guitar and the dark, bold lyrics melted together into one wall of solid sound. Is this what business men refer to as “synergy?” I don’t know but I can say for sure that even though it’s the next morning as I write this, my mind is still totally blown.

Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room now.

I have a lot of love and respect for Bad History Month. Like everyone else in the room, I was looking forward to his set, which unfortunately didn’t really happen. He started playing through his first song and stopped halfway through because he was worried that he didn’t sound right. For the next few minutes he told us openly that he didn’t feel like playing, that he was severely unhappy and didn’t want people watching him. He tried to get through a few songs but stopped a few moments into each one. He told us he didn’t want do this tonight and he had been playing a lot lately and wasn’t feeling it and then he walked off and that was that.

The crowd was clearly disappointed, and I’ll admit that I was too, but I think it was a reminder to us that these musicians we focus on and think of in the context of their records and careers are real people. They get tired and they have private lives that we don’t know about and can’t judge. It’s hard…maybe even impossible to put on a good show when you don’t want to play your own music. The nature of being a musician is often tiring, bizarre and sometimes alienating. It was a dark way to end the night, but I think it was important for people to have experienced. I respectfully hope I get to see Bad History Month sometime soon when he feels more comfortable doing so, and even more than that I hope he finds whatever it is that he needs.