The Locust
Worth it? Heck Yea!!
Words: Tony Cheslock
Photo: Robin Laananen

Appeared:

April 20, 2007

State Theatre, St. Petersburg 

There is the kind of pain that will make other pain go away. The pain of which I speak, can be intimately experienced in the presence of The Locust. Watching a talented group of players, cast jagged edges of anti-harmony into a sea of sweating young bloods is the best way to describe their sonic onslaught. What is more subtle with a band like this, is the tight frame work that lies beneath their rampage.

Perhaps one can picture a swarm of biblically inspired insects, abusing the framework of society to feed their never-ending hunger for a certain crop. Everything in their path was laid to waste. This time however, the thing laid waste is your brain power from the sharp turns of their music wheel. 

All members of the group were lined up single file at the front of the stage. Instead of the age old triangle formation, this linear form allows the viewer to evaluate what all members are really doing. While the other players of the Locust certainly were ‘entertaining’ to watch, drummer Gabe Serbian (I would have preferred perhaps Zolmar, or maybe Star Scream) sounded like heavy artillery rounds coming from a Farragut Class Naval Destroyer. He also looked like he was pounding war drums. That was cool too.