Tonight’s Sonic Journey Back in Time #06
Catherine Wheel, Black Metallic
You have to love how “a little bit disturbing” was a ubiquitous characteristic of 90s alt music videos. Sometimes I wish I’d been older back then to grasp how generally fucked our collective psyche must’ve been.
Love your time machine posts this weekend. I remember this album so well, and I remember this tour so well. They came to Boston twice for Ferment, and I went both times: TT The Bears and the Middle East Upstairs. I was 20 years old, still uncomfortable and new in the civilized world, and rock shows were the strangest, weirdest, most overwhelming thing for me. Somehow a place I felt comfortable and safe, and yet not at all. I went to as many as I could afford. I feel like I took it for granted: that you could see a band like Catherine Wheel play songs like Black Metallic a couple times in a year. Get used to seeing them around. This song still gets me every time I hear it. Just two weekends ago I sat around with some old farts in a kitchen taking turns DJing via Spotify and when someone picked this one we all just sat there nodding our heads, thinking “oh yeah.” And when the crescendo kicks in at the end for the big rock finish, you can’t help but start head banging a little bit.
