Jucifer at the Pearl Street Clubroom. Attendees still have liquified brains draining from their ears. Photo: Heather Rush, Review: Matt Silberstein

Jucifer, a two piece band from Athens GA claim to be the loudest band going. The difference between their claim and those of countless others is, well, they're telling the truth. Jucifer tours with an invisible third member, an electrician, arriving at a gig in the early afternoon and setting up a veritable fortress of speakers (30 is my estimate from last Saturday at Pearl Street) many with 8 speaker cones, all wired together and using all available outlets.

To ask what their music sounds like is to assume that it can really be "heard." The answer? Does it really matter? Distinguishing between songs, hearing the words, these are trivial matters left to sane men, few of which will be found in a Jucifer crowd. With a set up so insanely over the top that Led Zeppelin's stack of Marshalls are mere Lego blocks by comparison, they're better judged against the sound of an airforce base than other bands. And the contest would be a draw. At the start of Saturday's show, Amber Valentine (guitar and vocals) played solo guitar for 2 minutes, for the most part simply engulfing the room in feedback. Drummer Edgar Livengood burst dramatically into a Bonhamesque beat that was primal, convulsive, and threatened common sense. This unholy wall of sound was punctuated by pulsating flood light surges and lightning strikes, dealt by the third Jucifer, completing the full frontal assault. Internal organs threatened to rip and bones vibrated like skeletal tuning forks.

As the set moved on Jucifer would throw in the occasional pauses and stops which allowed the audience to grasp their collective breath only to have it knocked right out of them by the next chord. Even with Edgar kicking his high hats with his boots, the drums (normally the loudest part of any show) were mere fodder for the wall, sucking it in like a black hole and spitting it out as something entirely stronger, where sound and feeling become one. Jucifer could be dismissed as a novelty act with the absurd speaker counts and roto toms the size of hot tubs, but a person should experience this at least once to truly understand the most extreme raw power a duo (ok, trio) can provide. Even if you don't like the music, you should see them for the foot and body massage provided by the music. -Matt Silberstein (See Heather Rush's review here.)