These two local bands got into rock for the best possible reason: to see how much noise human beings are capable of generating. Test your decibel endurance level against typical Sohns track “A Convocation of Marksmen” — weary old-man ears will pick up only Alex Mendez’s mutilated chipmunk shriek and the spastic hostility between Marcus Garza’s guitar and Lawrence Mercado’s drums and dismiss it all as structureless, deafening nonsense. Further listens reveal a more complex push-pull instrumental interplay and an experimental but coherent song development. Live, Sohns (pictured above) are even more horrifying/exciting: The band sets up on the floor and doesn’t play so much as incite a riot. The Grasshopper Lies Heavy are more deliberate — often considering each jaw-rattling chord for bars at time — but just as loud. Their low-end rumble and sludge-drowned post-rock melodics should provide a nice contrast to Sohns’ hysteric theatrics. See them both before they embark on a summer tour spanning the Deep South and the Midwest, where god knows how they’ll be received; San Antonians have developed callused eardrums from prolonged exposure to this type of thing. Call for price, 8pm Tue, Jun 30, The Ten Eleven, 1011 Ave. B, (210) 320-9080, theteneleven.com.
— Jeremy Martin
