Recap Young Widows at The Borg Ward

Watching Young Widows tear through a brutal version of “Old Skin”—the stand-out cut on this year’s Old Wounds—before a sparse crowd Saturday at The Borg Ward, it was clear that what sets the Louisville band apart from its noise-rock contemporaries is discipline. No moment was wasted during the set, and this economy of sound strips down the band’s songs to only what is absolutely necessary.

This discipline gives Young Widows’ songs a somewhat machine-like feel, as the band easily slipped from one lock-step groove to another. At times Young Widows recalled Amphetamine Reptile powerhouses like Helmet, though the group is most obviously indebted to The Jesus Lizard. (This was all but acknowledged on its 2006 debut Settle Down City, which included the song “Glad He Ate Her,” a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Jesus Lizard’s “Gladiator.”) The anchor of Young Widows’ pummeling sound is the jack-hammer bass lines of Nick Thieneman, whose intense playing gave the music much of its industrialized stomp.

If this is post-hardcore, it’s being played by guys who remember what made hardcore so viscerally appealing in the first place, namely that they’re out to sonically steamroll audiences. There is still room for nuance, particularly in front man Evan Patterson’s innovative guitar playing. But nothing eclipses Young Widows’ desire to bludgeon the listener into submission. Not surprisingly, something dark and disturbing inhabits the Widows’ best material, and the band seems to go out of its way to cultivate its brooding image. Curiously for a DIY band, Young Widows puts a bit of distance between itself and the audience, a distance necessary to create the sense of darkness and mystery that the group’s music is meant to evoke. Watching the band without the benefit of a stage, and only feet away from the audience, stripped the group of much of its aura—the band’s massive wall of amplifiers and homemade light show seemed a bit Spinal Tap-esque within the tight confines of The Borg Ward. (The PA system blowing out after the first song didn’t help, either.)

Young Widows attempted to fix the sound issues and continue on with their set. But you get the sense that the hassles that come with playing big-time rock in small-time venues are starting to take their toll on Patterson, who has been touring with underground acts for more than a decade. “You can tell you’re getting old, she can tell you’re getting old skin” Patterson sang during “Old Skin.” You wonder how many nights like this Patterson and company still have in them.