The new Saint Vitus Bar is still in its debutante era. After the abrupt demise of the Greenpoint location in 2024, metalheads across the NYC area were left without a home. Only slightly mollified by the “Vitus Presents” series at other local venues, the local scene was consistently abuzz with rumors of an imminent reopening. These rumors were finally realized when the team announced the new home of Vitus in the former Brooklyn Made space in Bushwick, with an incredible opening weekend featuring titans Anthrax and Converge.
Just over a month in, the calendar is still stacked, and the hits just keep coming. I was thrilled to see that the “To Be Announced” block in the Kowloon Walled City and Great Falls tour was, as expected, slated for the new Vitus stage. Fitting, as one of the last shows I was able to attend at the old location was KWC’s Container Ships anniversary show.
First band of the evening, Great Falls, grabbed the attention of the international noise rock scene in 2023 with the release of Objects Without Pain, their fourth album. The Seattle trio had been putting out solid releases since their 2013 debut Accidents Grotesque, but it wasn’t until they signed to Neurot Recordings and added Nickolis Parks (ex-Gaytheist, ex-Bastard Feast) on drums that they started getting the attention they deserve. This evening featured tracks off their soon-to-be-released fifth LP The Bite That Grows Up, with early copies available at the merch table.
Set against the backdrop of dark, noisy samples and hazy blown-out projected imagery of houses and eyes and various phrases, the band’s performance was incredibly tight from first note to last. Vocalist and guitarist Demian Johnston hung close to his microphone, hunching over it to spit out lyrics of mental anguish, utterances of guilt, and screams of existential agony. Complementing the lyrics and imagery, bassist Shane Mehling’s spastic flailing about the stage served as an interpretive dance — at times jumping into an exultant posture mere inches from the crowd, at others cowering over his pedal board in silent contemplation.
If you ever need to occupy a couple of metalheads for, say, four or more hours, just ask them who is the heaviest band of all time. The Socratic members of the group will start by asking “what is heavy?”, while the Diogenean ones will just grunt “Crowbar. Next.” My potentially contentious contribution would be Kowloon Walled City. Named for the famed colossal city-cum-apartment-complex in Hong Kong, these four unassuming rockers have been constructing crushing compositions since they came together in 2007.
What makes Kowloon Walled City heavy is in part their trademark tone. Scott Evans, owner and proprietor of recording studio Antisleep, has mastered the modern sludge tone. Not only through his work with KWC but also in his prolific career in audio engineering and production, having worked with bands including Neurosis, Sumac, Exhumed, Pelican, Autopsy, and, of course, Great Falls, to just name a few. Even without his custom-built Kowloon Walled Bunny distortion pedal engaged, the dissonant riffs, doubled by guitarist Jon Howell, are a punch in the gut. Bassist Ian Miller and drummer Dan Sneddon lay down the 50,000-ton foundation upon which Howell and Evans scaffold their devastating riffs.
But it’s not just the sound of Kowloon Walled City that heralds heaviness, nor is it their artistic aesthetic, with album covers featuring massive container ships, collapsing buildings, and massive factories. Each element individually — the sparse, poetic lyrics; the low, growling bass lines; the swirling lead guitars – beautiful on its own, but when placed together, they multiply into an agony and hurt greater than the sum of its parts. In the 10-track set, we heard songs about Evans’ mother’s experiences as a nurse (“Oxygen Tent”), about factory workers locked in a burning building (“Grievances”), fleeing a dying planet (“Utopian”), and other uniquely miserable experiences that have pervaded throughout the history of the capitalist dystopian empire built on the bones of the lower classes. Evans also shared with the crowd the unfortunate recent passing of Miller’s father, dedicating a song to the man who walked through life with open arms and an open heart.
By the end of the show, despite the ground being leveled by the noisy, chaotic coda of closing selection “50s Dad”, I felt lighter. Sharing in such heaviness with friends and strangers can have that effect- for metalheads, there is no better therapy than the heaviest of music, played at the loudest of volumes. While the world is truly a dark place, there are moments of joy to celebrate. Evans’ mother was in attendance, celebrating her birthday (happy birthday, Betty!). The band shared two new songs, “Antiques” and “Pepsi”, which means we’ll have more music to look forward to in the hopefully near future. And sharing this experience, in this space where we’re just getting started writing the next chapter of music history, was a beautifully heavy experience.
Buy Kowloon Walled City music and merch:
https://inthewalledcity.com/
Buy Great Falls music and merch:
https://greatfalls.bandcamp.com
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY ROBBY GRODIN
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RIP Saint Vitus Bar – The Home of Metal 2013-2024 and The Top 5 Shows (Nirvana, Against Me!)