Soldiers of Fortune are a supergroup of sorts. Lead by former Interpol bassist Brad Traux, the group pulls a couple members from the heavily kraut-rock inspired Brooklyn band Oneida. This includes drummer Kid Millions (also from Man Forever), Barry London, and “Papa Crazee.”
In honor of their first full length album Early Riser, which was released on November 6th, a group of 7 assembled in the Lower East Side basement of Max Fish with 5 guitarists, a dedicated local crowd, and a lot of heavy psychedelic overtones.
I managed to make it for the first of two sets at 8:30pm, and the band kicked off into a jam that never ended. Except when the power blew out and Kid Millions on drums got to take an extended drum break to the glee of an audience who thoroughly enjoyed the impromptu break in noise. The break lasted maybe a minute or two before the power switched back on and the jam started again in a completely different spot.
I’m not exactly sure if there were songs – if there were songs – they were very loosely constructed to allow for extended meditations on themes spearheaded by Traux’s bass, which was somewhere between Lemmy’s Hawkwind and Steve Harris’s Iron Maiden pummeling drive.
Unfortunately, Max Fish’s basement worked against the group in terms of sound, not only the blowing out part, but because the only tones that bounced off the walls (of what I would lightly compare to a dungeon) were the bass and drums. All five guitars were lost in a swirling haze of feedback and wall of sound that was hard to discern.
That being said, the audience were enthralled by the repetitious wavering bass riffs and tribal drumming that ebbed and flowed through tension, rising action, and tempo shifts. Get the chance to check out Soldiers of Fortune in the future!
Article: Steven Klett
