What a strange name for a band, you could say… Yes, I also consider it to be rather weird and still wonder what does it mean, however there’s still no answer… Actually, this band features a friend of mine, who studies at the same place as I do (Moscow State University’s journalistic faculty) and plays guitar in .RU – and he was the one who invited me to “As Though” (“Kak By” in Russian) club to see his band performing live. That day I successfully passed a regular examination and drank too much bear / vodka, so when I came to “As Though”, I was already rather drunk. Besides, I came too early – a long before .RU appeared on the stage. There was some kind of a discotheque and I really hate that kind of crap… I bought one more beer (this kind of stuff is quite expensive at that club, although the price could be much higher) and fell asleep while some freaks (mostly young females) were dancing and getting pleasure of that monotonous “ums-ums-ums-ums” techno shit. Fortunately, I awoke before .RU began to play and had some time to come to myself thanks to one more glass of beer. Shortly after I met lots of my pals from the faculty, whose arrival foretold the .RU’s performance. This band consists of four guys (singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer – i.e. the usual metal band’s lineup without any keyboardists or violin-players, heh heh), while their music appears as some kind of alternative / hardcore stuff; quite pleasant, by the way. Their performance didn’t last for too long, although it was very… ehh… let’s say ‘energetic’. As well as undoubtedly powerful. Besides their own tunes, they played some covers from RADIOHEAD and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, which seemed to be done in a fairly splendid way. Concerning their musical abilities… Hmm… What I liked most of all, was drummer’s work – this guy definitely has some future as a musician! Basically, instrumental part was enough enjoyable. As to singer… Well, he sang rather properly, his voice was nothing bad, but… You see, this kind of music demands some other sort of singing – either you scream as a serial killer in triumph (recall BIOHAZARD, MACHINE HEAD or PANTERA), or you sing in a rough way, though less aggressive than aforementioned bands’ singers (let’s recall HELMET), or else your voice appears as melodic and powerful “clean” vocals. Otherwise, it sounds a bit annoying and unappropriate. Ok, let’s forget it. I wouldn’t say that it is a serious drawback, anyway. Furthermore, the sound (speaking generally, of course) was good – really good for such a club – I was even a bit surprised due to that fact! However, here we had few shortcomings as well. F.ex. in the beginning, guitar was almost silent; at least it was nearly impossible to hear anything he played. Fortunately, the sound engineer fixed it up quite soon… Nothing terrible, I believe. But look here, there was one thing which truly shocked me… I mean, most of those brainless teen-girls, who seemed to be totally into rave-alike bullshit, looked like they cum while listening to .RU. I can’t understand this at all…
All in all, the crowd (which was in quite little number, although it was enough for such a club as “As Though”) greeted .RU very positively, which, I think, was a natural reaction because this band’s stuff definitely deserves some attention…