“With its latest offering, Beyond the Lightless Sky, Brooklyn five-piece Hull occupies a dark musical terrain that lies somewhere between doom, crusty/sludgy metal, and post-hardcore.” –Creative Loafing. Drummer, Jeff Stieber joined us for our 5GB series before their show tonight.
What’s the first gig you ever attended?
Ha. Well this will throw the readers for a loop. I was lucky enough to be born in Philly and raised in the burbs right outside the now murder capitol (per capita) of America! I’ve moved since, but anyway. My parents also being born and bred in Philly led them to show my brother and I all the great things that Philly has/had to offer. This would include many a trip into center city during holidays and what not. Later on in my life it would be with my friends to score some drugs or party or you know…teenagers. Philly having a big Motown scene in its heyday would continue its trend so at every single event you would see someone from that particular scene. So one hot humid day when I was probably 7 my dad threw the family in the car and we were off to celebrate the birthday of the great country of The United States of America. And who better to perform on such a day then the Motown Philly crew of Boyz II Men! Yeah, I said it. The first fucking gig I saw was Boyz II Men. You got a problem with that? I bet you know just about every word to Motown Philly. Don’t act like you don’t! You ain’t that cool
Later on in life I personally would participate in numerous local shows, hardcore, metal, big names, no names, whatever, but it all started with that “Motown Philly’s Back Again!”
What is the best gig that you ever played/performed?
Oh dang. A tricky one. Well I used to play in this Hard Core band Scraps and Hearts Attacks for a bit who’s members went on to play in I Am The Avalanche and also This Is Hell. We once or maybe a few times played with American Nightmare. That was pretty bonkers. But in Hull I’d have to say the best show that we played in my eyes was the Planet Caravan festival. We headlined the second smaller stage. Although the festival was ill attended we were the last band to play that evening. This was I think our second or third tour. The back of the stage smelled like vomit as we were told the band headlining the night prior had a member who lost his stomach in or around that area. Anyway having a bunch of heads in the place, most of them having never heard of us, well shit, that was a trip. I almost passed out from over exerting my self, even more so than I normally do. And the crowd just went fucking apeshit, absolute insane. People were buying us shots afterwards. I think I signed a few sticks and posters and CD’s. It was just an amazing feeling altogether. On top of that USX played an unannounced show to follow ours who after that day we have become close buddies with.
What is the best gig you have ever seen?
Easy! Meshuggah and Slayer way back in the day at The Electric Factory in philly. I did an interview with a similar question, although I believe that question was more like the best mosh pit story I had. Any way long story short Meshuggah was absolutely insane, playing a lot of Destroy Erase Improve, ahh the good old days. And before Slayer went on I happened to be in the very back of the audience chuggin’ a beer smoking a blunt or suckin’ on a balloon or something like that. Anyway before Slayer even walked out onto the stage I tapped the guy shoulder in front of me. He saw my eyes of desperation. He cupped his hands, I jumped in and I was launched into a full on crowd surf. By the time I had landed I was right smack dab infront of the stage right as slayer came on. Was an awesome ride, man.
There were many others. Most recently seeing Converge at House Of Vans here in Brooklyn last summer. I moshed my god damn face off, and crowd surfed like no buddies business.
Finally a few months ago saw the Death To All Tour. Went with some lady friend. I fucking LOVE Death and ontop of that Gorguts opened. Anyway the A/C broke in the place so everyone was sweating profusely while just standing. As Death got into what I believe to be there best work, Sound Of Perseverance, go ahead, disagree, I don’t care. Once they started playing that shit I really really got into it and before I knew it the chic I was with was dragging me into the pit. Once we got there we didn’t mosh, we didn’t crowd surf, we fucking started making out hard. Sweaty as hell and making out in the middle of a mosh pit while Death, RIP Chuck, was killing it on stage. So fucking sweet.
What is the gig you would most like to play?
Well I can’t really say just one gig. What I really really want to do is tour Europe, Japan, Australia, basically every that isn’t the US. We’ve played the US a few times and I’m sure we’ll play it a many more times but we have yet to make it over seas. We are trying our damndest to do so. So many good damn festivals, so many good bands. Hey you reading this? GET US OVER THERE ALREADY! FUCK! What is taking so long. I like heavy music, I like travel, I like different cultures, I like different women, I like what ya got so let’s do this. NOW!
What would be the lineup for your dream gig?
TWell this is going to have to be a month long festival. But just to name a few bands that we should play with that would all fit together well on a show hows about…Baroness, Mastodon, Torche, Converge, Kellhaul, Neurosis, Yob, Pallbearer, USX, Rwake, Modern Life Is War (Please Reunite). Maybe Chelsea Wolfe can play the post show to calm everything down?
And of course Soundgarden would headline
That would be the HEAVY STAGE. There would also be stages for punk, hardcore, straight up Rock n Roll etc. Probably about 7 stages in total. Who’s with me? Month long festival, 7 stages. You wouldn’t have to go to a show for the rest of the year but I’m sure you would and so would I. Probably the day after.
Catch HULL @ 529
