The first great discovery of Boomslang was Disappears, who I caught while waiting around for the Black Angels (spoiler alert: I didn’t get to see them). I forgot to keep notes on my phone during their set, but if I had, it would probably have read “AWESOME BAND. VERY LOUD.”

So yeah, I was pretty thankful that I brought my earplugs. When I talked to people later about Disappears’ set, pretty much everyone told me that they had to stand at the end of the room to come close to enjoying it. Their loss. I was up front and loving it. In fact, I appreciated the volume because there were some really great bass lines that I was only able to hear because he was cranked up.

But maybe my favorite thing about Disappears was that their songs didn’t sound too much alike as they progressed through their set. Sure, they had a “sound” and everything would have sounded cohesive when put together on an album, but their performance never got repetitive. And when you’re seeing a band you’ve never heard before, the last thing you want is for the set to drag on and on.

More photos after the break