I always felt I should like Helmet more than I did. Sure, they recorded some truly amazing songs, “Turned Out” and “Biscuits for Smut” being two of my faves. They were hard, heavy and uncompromising, but — by the same token — they seemed to lack a little of the sneery charisma of their peers like The Unsane, Prong, Barkmarket, Surgery and — oh yes, wait for it — Cop Shoot Cop. Page Hamilton was certainly an innovative guitarist (and an avowed acolyte of Killing Joke, no less), but too often, they fell a bit flat, for me. I just wanted a bit more.
The track below is not the original video for their “big breakout” single “Unsung,” from In the Meantime. That video found the band playing in a strobe-lit abandoned foundry (or something) with lots of corrugated metal, rusty pylons and sharp edges and … y’know … chains and shit, amplifying their metal chops, I guess. Lots of bands did that.
I don’t know if this was shot before or after that, but I love this version because it was shot in the old East River Park Bandshell, the same space used in older videos by Kid Creole & the Coconuts, False Prophets and a few others.
This clip also highlight’s Helmet’s kinda weird, clean-cut fashion sense — lots of utilitarian ringer t-shirts, shorts and white socks with black sneakers. Never really got my head around that vibe, not that it affected their music at all.
More striking, here, is the state of the bandshell circa 1991, which looks crumbly, abandoned and slathered with graffiti. The space got a huge makeover/overhaul about five or six years ago, and looks nothing like the place presented here.
Anyway, enjoy…
Recent Comments