Delivering the Greens w/ Megaton Leviathan

     I realize that Megaton Leviathan are from Portland (or nearby) and that, though they have toured extensively in the past, this meal coincided with a one-off, hometown performance.  That said, listening to "Water Wealth Hell on Earth" I get the feeling that they are coming from a place far away where the landscape is vast and bleak.  Within that landscape, difficult to see in the distance, is a small group of people in a lush valley who are growing their own food and carrying on without the many modern conveniences that have created consuming automatons out of human beings.  In this place, life is hard and dark but good and full of meaning.  That's why I had them out for a meal, I wanted talk about that place in the distance.

     They arrived in their yellow tour van and we did the usual; toured the farm, visited with the goats, and then sat down for the meal.  The lunch consisted of pasta with meatballs and a mustard green salad.  The meatballs were each stuffed with a whole brussel sprout, which helped to stretch out the ground beef as well as provided a thin veil to hide the decadence of the meal.  To date, it has been my favorite meal to eat and I plan to recreate it at some point in the near future since we are swimming in brussel sprouts.

     We ate and chatted and then Chris and Andrew from Megaton Leviathan took off for the show.  I met back up with them later at the Rotture as they were preparing for their set.  For two people they have incredible stage presence, creating a dynamic show.  Between the smoke from the sage smudge, the projected video in the background, and the dull roar of the music that you can feel in your bones, the whole Megaton Leviathan show has quite the array of sensory experiences.  I may have been tired, as it was past midnight when they stepped onto the stage, but their set was nearly a mystical experience, passing from meditative to explosively loud and back in aural undulations.  At the end of the set, Chris told me that he had an auditory hallucination while playing, hearing instruments that he shouldn't be hearing during the final song.  If you are a fan of drone/spiritual metal, make sure to attend a Megaton Leviathan show if and when you have the opportunity, you won't regret it.

     Thanks to Chris and Andrew for joining me at Wealth Underground Farm for lunch.  To hear more from Megaton Leviathan you can visit their website here and be sure to check out the podcast, which will be out in the next few days, to hear the lunchtime conversation.