How great it was to see The Fight after so many years. I realized while grooving with about 100 other intense Fight fans that this band has done things their way at their pace and it has only continued to get better. Though when asked where the fuck they have been for 4 years, since Mantrapping, Ironlung replied, “what are you talking about? We have done 2 EPs since and now Jaggernaut.” My Bad.
And here’s what the Fight had to say when I got a few minutes with them:
D: Jaggernaut, the title of your new full length and latest release on Tortuga, Jaggernaut, not Juggernaut, what does it mean?
Lung: To jag is to do something to excess, a jaggernaut is
on a jag, at the jag and full tilt jagging as a method
of ritual madness, a transformative experience.
D: Scissorfight have always had a unique way of incorporating nature and natural experience from the members lives into the lyrics, and some even catch humor, though I know anyone that knows them has no doubt the folklore has taken place. New Hampshire’s alright if you like fighting……On Jaggernaught, the track Backwoods; what would a ‘backwoods motherfuckering’ entail?
Lung: The wilderness as metaphysical landscape, retreat to
wilderness igniting primal instinctuality, self-
preservation, survival, fight or flight responses, a
manifestation of chaos, a "bad destructive jag."
D: You said, "We are not ambitious or go getters? We do
things at our own pace"
Lung: Our society and culture is driven by a work ethic that
need not be applied to artistic expression.
D: A theme was "everything is as it should be,
happening as it should” when we spoke.
Lung: We have a unique situation working with Tortuga.
Tortuga, Juan Perez, provides the freedom to operate
under a conviction of subjective experience over
objective achievement. We get to set the course of
our own renegade expeditions, free of external
expectations. We've been doing this for over ten
years; we do whatever the fuck we want. When it's time
to get down, it's time to get down, thus everything
is at it should be.
When asked about what they have seen out there or witnessed lately, if they have seen anything they like or don’t Ironlung simply replied, “I see all.”
Today seems different than 10 years ago and Jaggernaut is a big heavy rock record many more people should know about. The record screams rock and roll with thunderous rolling grooves, breaks, chants and song. “I heard a crashing in the pines…” a lyric that screams out to me, perhaps sums up how I regard this body of work; a beast in the woods, thrashing in the trees, and definitely making tremendous noises whether someone is there to hear it or not. This is a band that knows itself, treats the beast with respect, nothing on any one else’s terms, anything that has happened, has been for real and if I read the room correctly, besides a windstorm that blew 18 wheelers over heading north to Chicago on I55 earlier that day, things are as Scissorfight would have it. Even hearing about the winds makes one think other forces and challenges were at work here, unique to the band, earth, and where and how they choose to walk it.
Hopefully we can convince them to do another month or 2 on the road this summer. And to that Ironlung said “If the people behave, perhaps we will give them what they want.”
And in conclusion I was assured the Fight will always drink, fight and fuck if anyone had any question.
The merch table was flooded following their ‘steal the show’ set, out with Orange Goblin from England this round.
Always a powerful experience, an education, and a pleasure,
-D
Scissorfight
