AWmusic

The house lights snap off and the crowd immediately shifts from milling around in patient anticipation to a roar of excitement. Vertical blue lights flash back and forth and the debate of what the first song will be as the first chords of Anti-Mothers opening track, Vipers, Snakes and Actors fill the club, as Norma Jean, lead singer Cory Brandan scream sings the opening line, “Carry your flag, into that fictional cause….”, guitarists Chris Day, and Scottie Henry wail away, and bass player, Jake Shultz, looking like an undiscovered fish you’d see on the deep blue disc of the Planet Earth series, bounces from pillar to post laying down a pounding bass line. Drummer Chris Raines sits behind the kit pounding away like the drums had stolen his car and raped his dog.

The crowd turn insane, as a circle pit opens, the moshers go nuts and the smell of sweet cheeba floats through the air.

Earlier I in the day, I’d had the chance to speak with Chris, and he’d been stoked about the Canadian crowds thus far on their tour across the great white north, “Dude, Canada has been crazy, it really has, it’s been just as good as all of our south show. It just seems like everyone here is so excited to see theses shows.”

Toronto and Norma Jeans love fest continued as the closing chords of Vipers lead into Blueprints for Future Homes, a track off of 2006’s Redeemer, an album that had a different style and feel to 2008’s Anti-Mother.

The style shift had been another question that I put to Chris, “It was kind of conscious but not really. It’s not like we sat around and ad talks wand were like we’re really gonna change, or do this and that, we really just wrote songs so you know there are some songs that are really heavy, heavier than past albums, and then there are some songs that are super melodic. We really just go with it and if we like it we keep going, and if we don’t like it we say it sucks and move on to something else.”

Anti-Mother had also featured tracks with two big name singers in Helmet’s Page Hamilton Deftones Chino Moreno, that didn’t just feature the guests on vocals but also featured them with a pen in the writing process. A process that Chris spoke about, “Page, the guy from helmet came to Atlanta and spent 3 days with us writing, which was cool, cause it changes the vibe, not to mention we were all obsessed with him as kids. Chino came to the studio for three days, and that was awesome too. We were just setting up and he started playing a riff, and I started jamming with him on drums and before we knew it we started writing a song. They both were awesome; I think we’d like to do it again, maybe not with those two guys, but with somebody for sure.”

I’m not one to let an obvious follow up question float by me and disappear into the great beyond, so I asked about future collaborations, which lead to us talking about his favorite band, the immortal Pearl Jam, a subject that made Matt look like a carefree kid.

Back in the Guvernement, the understated Chris Raines has been replaced by ball of kinetic energy pounding on the kit like Animal from the Muppets, as Norma Jean move on to Memphis will be Laid to Waste from 2002’s Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child, a track which showcases both power and musicianship as it lulls itself into an atmospheric coma, before unleashing a fury of chugging guitars, and Cory screaming his lungs out.

The trip through the Norma Jean back catalogue continues with Bayonettework from 2005’s, O God The Aftermath before returning to Anti-Mother for that albums lead single, Robots 3, Humans 0.

I’d Asked Chris about the themes found on their latest album. “We all pitch in on lyrics. Cory‘s lyrics are more personal than anybody else’s, Scotty writes a lot too. But I know that what Cory writes, is really personal stuff, maybe it’s the same for Scotty too.”

The energy from the crowd and from the band haven’t diminished at all, as Robots rolls to an end the opening from Vertabraille off of Aftermath, hypes the rabid fan base up even more, as they reach a teetering fevered pitch.

I thought back to the part of my discussion with Chris when we’d talked about the bands Christian roots. Something that is not often evident to someone hearing Norma Jean for the first time, but is a constant bone of contention with fans and haters.

“I think there are sadly still some people whoa re just gonna be like, “they’re a Christian band”, and they don’t want to bother listening to it. Sadly it goes both ways and there are people who are like, “they’re not even Christian” when they listen to it. So it’s just kind of weird. Some people know that you’re a Christian band and they expect the world. “Ï heard they smoke cigarettes,” or some bullshit like that. That’s the only thing that’s been a bum out about that. We are who we are and really don’t care anyway.”

As Vertabraille morphed directly into The Shotgun Message, the band and the crowd seemed to somehow rachete the energy up even further, as the circle pit grew and the band put everything they had into the track.

Even though this tour was in support of Anti-Mother, Norma Jean’s set had touched on every album, and fan favorite in their arsenal, a fact that is likely to continue as Norma Jean look forward to their next album.

“We wrote a bit together before this tour, and everyone has been writing on their own. I think we’ll write more this summer. We plan to take the summer off we’re doing some festival’s fly out for a couple of days, play, but for the most part we’re gonna stay at home, relax and write some, and get together and write some, our goal would be to start recording way late in this year or early next year, something like that, but you never know, that stuff changes all the time. But that would be the goal.”

Shotgun Message had in fact been the last song in a far too short set, and the Norma Jean fans begged for more, but to no avail.

Norma Jean is a band that can bring the power to silence many of their haters and impress their ever growing fan base time and time again. Their live show is a sight to behold, if far too short this time around. They are not just part of a scene that has grown in popularity over the last ten years, but are architects within that scene.

“I would never have thought that 10 years ago playing front of 20 people for 50 bucks and staying on peoples floors that we’d ever still be doing this, but this style of music just appealed to a lot of people and we’re able to still do it, so hopefully we’ll be able to still do it for a long time.”

Let’s all hope that Norma Jean can keep on doing this for a long time.

Norma Jean – Vipers, Snakes, and Actors.mp3
Norma Jean – A Shotgun Message.mp3
Norma Jean – Bayonetwork.mp3

Tags: Aaron Long, Bless the Martyr Kiss the Child, Chris Raines, concert, Interview, Norma Jean, O God The Aftermath, Redeemer, The Anti-Mother