Great Falls

Great Falls make you feel bad, but then they make you feel good. The Seattle-based noise rockers have been spreading a gospel of angry, discordant noise rock for more than a decade now and it’s precisely that element that makes them so unique among their sonic contemporaries. Objects Without Pain, the band’s latest long player, examines the end of a decade-long relationship and struggles with the weight of such a choice. When vocalist/guitarist Demian Johnston screams about his desire to start a new life or worries about the misery of not starting a new one, it cuts deep. 

They’ve been this good for a long time now, too. Great Falls—who count among their ranks members of Kiss It Goodbye, Undertow and Playing Enemy—put out their first release in 2011 but it was 2018’s A Sense of Rest where they became something to truly pay attention to, straddling the line between Neurosian heaviness, twisting noise rock and cathartic, all-emotions-bared post-hardcore. There are a great many bands in similar sonic spaces to Great Falls these days, but few who can get straight to the emotional core of it like Great Falls do.

Oh, and they aren’t too shabby on the live front, either. As the band tells you in the liner notes to their new album, bassist Shane Mehling once broke his arm mid-set amidst the emotional chaos on stage. Beyond accidental self-harm, Great Falls are able to translate the same angular riffs and sense of claustrophobic, aggressive dread to the stage—no small feat when tackling this subject matter. 

Great Falls comment:

“Having only toured Europe for the first time earlier this year, the opportunity to play Roadburn means so much to us. It’s an honor to be onstage but we’re also just happy to have an excuse to fly back across the ocean and see the amazing bands on the lineup this year.” 

The trio’s set at Roadburn will provide catharsis whether you want it or not.

– Emily Bellino