The Tree of Tongues Tour feat. Goes Cube – REVIEW

We attended The tree of Tongues Tour featuring Exotic Animal Petting Zoo and Goes Cube this week at Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago! Check our our review of the tour after the break.

It was a heavy Monday night at the well-known Reggies Music Joint brought on by Exotic Animal Petting Zoo and Goes Cube who swung through Chicago on their tour across the US. The two bands have vastly different approaches to heavy rock music, but this gave the show quite a satisfying punch in the ear. Not to mention some killer local acts that kicked the night off.

As people trickled in, the local act Shifting Totem hit the stage. These guys have some groovy stoner-rock, and the lead singer/guitarist definitely gives the band a Pantera-ish vibe. Up after that was an out-of-left-field Chicago act Arbogast. These guys flew through five songs with a heavy-metal hillbilly feel given by the drummers’ blast beats and duo-vocals from the fast-playing guitarist and bassist. But within each individual song were tastes of sludge metal with punk rock overtones.

Following Arbogast was none-other than the heavy-hitters Goes Cube. The rock trio has been touring with Exotic Animal Petting Zoo all across the greater Midwest, and will be finishing in their home state of NYC. But these guys didn’t hold back their Chicago love, or love for each other when they exchanged hugs before bursting into their set. Goes Cube’s dynamic sound comes from the wide range of grunge, punk, metal, and pure rock influences and they showed it off by playing work off both of their LP’s. Their “Song 34” got the sparse crowd engaged as some folks threw a fist up during the slow, doomy second half of the classic. A good surprise came when the normally calmer second half of “Year of the Human,” turned into a way heavier version, held up by Obuchowski’s powerful vocals. To top of their set, they played a kickass new song called “Anthologies.”

When 11’ O Clock rolled around, the majority of folks had made their way into the low-lit bar for the headliners, Exotic Animal Petting Zoo. The psychedelic math rockers of EAPZ are a unique group of fellows from Indiana. Their lead singer pumps out intense vocals (screaming, singing, speaking, all the works) over a slew of effect pedals that give some moments a trippy, Pink Floyd feel. It’s really hard to pin these guys down to anything except progressive. They have moody metal, textured with funky mellow sections, blast beat drums with reverse-delays on the guitars, and it all spastically jumps back and forth. If Dillinger Escape Plan was fed hallucinogens, this is what they’d be doing.

During their first song, Goes Cube lead singer, Obuchowski, hopped on stage and threw in his deep screams alongside the band. The guys noticed the crowd loved it, so throughout the show Obuchowski continued to hop on stage, if only for a split second, to rile the place up. They played mostly old tunes, many were off of I Have Made My Bed in Darkness. The final song played, “Rendered,” was off of ‘Darkness’ and added a sick topper to the night; the song starts off in a slow and trippy fashion and blasts into a thick and heavy end. All in all, Goes Cube and Exotic Animal Petting Zoo seemed to be having a kickass time, and the crowd fed off of it.

Information about the review…
Tour: The Tree of Tongues Tour
Bands: Exotic Animal Petting Zoo and Goes Cube
Reviewer: Eric Witt
Date: May 28, 2012
Venue: Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago, IL