Yob, Cave In with DUG @ The Turf Club | 5-30-23
Review & Photos by Ben Mckone
DUG
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On May 30th, three purveyors of extreme noise came together at St. Paul's Turf Club to add just a little bit of darkness to the early summer season. The night opened with a dour set from gloomy Minneapolis nihilists Dug. Newly formed in 2021, the duo have no social media presence, and simply describe themselves as “Mike and Travis” in the liner notes of their debut EP. While more common in the metal underground, such a choice for simple anonymity is always refreshing in our age of constant social media saturation.
The two used an unorthodox stage set-up, wherein the drummer was on equal footing with the vocalist, both directly facing the audience. This worked in the groups’ favor, presenting a unified front as they began their noisy performance.
With track titles like “Elevator into the Ground”, “Strapped to the Hood of a Car”, and “The Crying Man”, Dug were not here to make any friends or sing about the oncoming summer season. Rather, their punishing combination of bombastic drumming and Sleep-esque guitar created a pervasive atmosphere of anger and desolation - which is not meant at all in a negative way.
After a few songs as a duo, the set took an unexpected left turn when Dug was joined onstage by a saxophonist. While the instrument seemed incongruous at first, it ended up fitting in perfectly with the rest of the set, adding a darkened-city-noir feel to Dug’s desolate soundscape. The only word spoken was a simple “Bye” from the frontman at the end; and with that, as mysteriously as they appeared, Dug was done for the night.
While Dug seem content to keep a low profile, they are accomplished musicians, and their work should please fans of Primitive Man, Thou, Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean, and other noisy doom-slingers.
Cave In
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The energy in the increasingly-packed Turf Club changed dramatically when Massachusetts-based rockers Cave In took the stage. Although just as heavy as the rest of the line-up, the quartet brought a fist-pumping energy to the room with their energetic post-hardcore. Guitarist and vocalist Stephen Brodsky seemed genuinely touched by the audience’s enthusiasm, at one point declaring that “there’s nothing more we could have asked for than a sold-out crowd like this.”
Appearing in Minnesota for the first time since 2004, Cave In clearly felt right at home on the Turf Club stage, bursting into opener “New Reality” with enough energy to wake up everyone in the vicinity of the venue. Drummer John-Robert Conners was a special highlight, handling his kit with a mixture of energy and precision, guiding his bandmates through the set with unwavering power.
Genre-wise, Cave In were perhaps the odd men out, being the only band out of the three that could not be described as "doom metal". However their injection of pure energy was much needed between the two slower acts, rejuvenating the audience and allowing a respite of faster-paced music.
For a farewell, Brodsky assured St. Paul that “Cave In loves you,” and grandly announced that next up would the “the mighty Yob!”. The audience cheered with him, and readied themselves for the headliners.
Yob
A mainstay in the doom-metal scene since the release of their debut LP in 2002, Yob gathered a devoted sold-out crowd on Tuesday night. By the time the three took the stage, every bit of standing room on the floor was filled with anxious fans. A glitch in frontman Mike Scheidt’s extensive bank of pedals led to an unfortunate false start. Just as the band was gearing up for their first notes and the energy of the audience was reaching its peak, all sound from the stage suddenly cut out, causing a few minutes of awkward silence as the band and the venue staff struggled through the miles of cables onstage to fix the problem. But their skillful efforts were soon rewarded, the cascade of sound returned, and the trio was able to begin their crushing set.
As practitioners of the brand of proggy, ambitious, and soaring-yet-crushingly-heavy doom metal pioneered by bands like Neurosis, Yob tracks rarely last less than ten minutes, (six tracks made up their 90-minute set), exploring realms of Eastern mysticism, spirituality, and personal emotions. Despite the prodigious length of their songs, the group rarely paused between them, only taking a moment for a breath or sip of water before continuing their sonic journey.
Naturally, in the best doom-metal tradition, Yob played at a volume that could be described as bone-shattering, or perhaps soul-crushing. The waves of sound coming from the stage could be felt in one’s chest, and rattled loose clothes throughout the sold-out venue. Far from being driven away, the crowd pushed closer to the source, swaying and headbanging in unison, fully captured by the spell woven by the band.
Yob and their supporting acts brought their A-game to the Turf Club, treating the crowd to an evening of music that put the heavy in heavy metal, and run the gamut from nihilistic noise to soaring spiritual exploration. And during such a show, enclosed in the swaying crowd and feeling the music in your chest, one gets the strong feeling that this is why we all started listening to music in the first place.
