Recap Boris at the Majestic Theatre

Before The A.V. Club caught Japanese sludge-monsters Boris at the Majestic Theatre Tuesday night, we were hit with cautionary choirs of, “Dude, wear your fucking earplugs. This will be the loudest show you’ll ever catch.” And, even if all the trio’s sonic jets hadn’t completely crashed through the wall with chugging set-opener “Riot Sugar” from 2011’s Heavy Rocks, it sure set a fantastically nasty precedent as the buzzing shape-shifters ripped through a set list that stretched well across the last decade.

When journeying through a Boris performance, it immediately becomes obvious that a serious cast of characters will be met along the way. Takeshi, dressed entirely in black with his long hair in his face, grabbed his double-neck guitar-bass and zoned out, never cracking a smile. Wata strapped on her guitar, stationed herself near a keyboard, and apparently went blank to shred on guitar and stick to the “no smiling” rule. Atsuo, in a skin-tight dress shirt with only the top button buttoned, wore a microphone headset and sat at his pink acrylic drum set with a giant gong behind him. During tunes like “Window Shopping,” some of Atsuo’s jolting animal noises fought their way out of the growling mix. We looked over, and it was just Atsuo screaming to himself as he bashed the hell out of his drum kit. Oh, and we can’t forget touring guitarist Michio Kurihara (of Ghost fame), who often colored in the tunes with swirling leads coated in hissing noise, while still backing down into the more delicate corners of gorgeous post-rock epic “Missing Pieces” (which erupted into a noisy section where Atsuo stood on his drum set and hammered away at his gong), the Wata-lead dance-pop of “Party Boy” from Attention Please, or Anime-pop rocker “Flare” from this year’s New Album.

The band’s volume kept dialing further and further upward as the show progressed, until the towers of Orange and Marshall amplifier cabinets onstage fully erupted with growling, guitar-dirge finale “Aileron.” The song bleakly buzzed along, rattling the crowd’s eardrums and intestines as Takeshi’s tender vocals somehow fought their way to the top of the mix. If the gut-shaking low-end sound wasn’t enough, Kurihara provided a second wall of inclining, screeching high-end sounds that hissed and crackled, and an ever-animated Atsuo pounded away underneath. After the band reached its rumbling crescendo, Takeshi and Wata waved goodbye, and Atsuo, quite obviously the band’s mouthpiece, thanked everyone for coming. Even if the big thrill of seeing Boris is supposed to be how unbearably loud the group is expected to be, it’s nice that the show didn’t hit that level until the end. Instead, the crowd got to see a show equally focused on Boris’ impressively dynamic songwriting and towering musicianship, which is far more awesome.