Live Show Review: Bambara

Have you ever experienced the feeling of your ear drums turning to mush? Have you ever experienced this feeling, been fully aware of the imminent liquification of your ear drums, continued on doing what you were doing and liked it?

This may have been the general sentiment of the crowd at the Caledonia Lounge in Athens on Thursday night when Bambara (w/ Marriage and N.C. band Hammer No More the Fingers) played. The Athens group played their brand of noisy psych-rock hard, fast and loud. The term "face-melting" comes to mind.

The trio, composed of twin brothers Blaze and Reid Bateh along with their friend William Brookshire, have been playing together since 2001 when they were in seventh grade. And it shows. The band  played songs from its 2008 self-titled debut album along with some new offerings.

Although on the first few tracks Reid's voice was drowned out by the instrumentals, when the trio started in on "Shake," everything worked - Reid's powerful lyrics and vocals with layered guitars, bass and Blaze pounding away on the drums.

Let's hope there are many more shows to come from these Athens up-and-comers. And that our ear drums are tough enough to take what Bambara can dish out.

-Kristen Callihan
currently listening to "Black River Killer" by Blitzen Trapper


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