Sleep w/ Thrones (September 12, Regency Ballroom, San Francisco)

Sleep is one of the bands I'd never thought I'd get to see in the flesh. It's been over 10 years since Dopesmoker broke the band up and everyone went their ways. But through some cosmic happening, Sleep reunited, and it was good.

This particular show the the first of two performances the band would place in San Francisco. Opening the evening was none other than Thrones, aka Joe Preston's one man mammoth wall of sound. I had seen Thrones at Gilman several years ago when I played my first show with the now defunct One Hundred Suns. I have seen bands play heavy music. I have felt heavy sounds rumble my very core. Those were ensembles of musicians working together to shake the earth. Band? Joe Preston don't need no stinking band! Thrones is capable of doing with one person that most bands can barely pull off as a group. Mr. Preston shook the entire room from the ground up shredding his bass while the sounds of drum machine just cut through his wall of sound.

It's not secret that Sleep loves Black Sabbath. Hell, the only shirt for sale showed a picture of Tony Iommi with the words "The Diety" written bellow. During the intermission the sound guy played what felt like samples of Sabbath's entire discography, three times, while and image of Iommi served as a back drop.

Then, it happened. They came on stage. The Marijuananaut handed them their instruments and Matt Pike played 'the riff', the opening to their hour-long epic, Dopesmoker. I cannot tell you what it felt like to not only hear that riff being played, but to actually see it being played. It was a holy experience.

The rest of the show was spectacularly arranged. The band weaved in and out of selections from the Holy Mountain album with very few breaks. Although Dopesmoker was not played in full, they concluded the set with a large chunk of it. I cannot tell you how amazing it felt to see Pike and Cisneros on the same stage together, and to see Al in front of a mic, sorta yelling. You go see bands whose music you know, and it makes the evening familiar and enjoyable. Seeing Sleep play some of the most important music in my life, live, in the flesh, was truly another kind of experience. It kinda makes you believe in something.