Sunday afternoon I got an email about Monday night’s Precious Metal ritual at Lit Lounge in NYC, and to my surprise, it was the recently-featured Man’s Gin playing the show. The email said it was just two acts, and that the show was starting at 8:45, so I got out of class and hightailed it into the city in time to hopefully catch Goldhail, who was opening.

I made it and then some. The basement of Lit — a fucking institution when it comes to heaviness in Manhattan — wasn’t open when I got there, so it was happy hour upstairs for a drink while I waited. When I did get down there, I was one of about five people not playing. I paid my $6 willingly, helping a good cause. It was Goldhail‘s first show, and the one-man project of The Nolan Gate guitarist Paul Andress was a little rough in the offing, but interesting nonetheless, bouncing Gary Arce tones through loops and off the concrete walls. For a Precious Metal night that wasn’t really all that metal, it wasn’t out of place.

It was just the two bands, Andress as Goldhail and Man’s Gin, so I didn’t expect a late night and I didn’t get one. Joining Erik Wunder was Inswarm‘s Josh Lozano on guitar, bass, vocals and saxaboom (days to learn, weeks to master), as well as percussionist Brett Zweiman of experimentalists Clutter. Scott Edward was the missing piece of Man’s Gin “usual” lineup — I put “usual” in quotes because they’ve only played a few shows together — but Lozano, Wunder (on vocals and guitar) and Zweiman managed to put together a satisfying show nonetheless, riding as only the brashest of outfits can on swagger, talent and songwriting.

Wunder having made the curious decision to play without a shirt on, they played cuts from the Smiling Dogs album, opening with “Free” and including “Nuclear Ambition” parts one and two (with banter beforehand about whether or not they were indeed two separate songs), the title track, “Hate Money Love Woman” and set-highlight “Doggamn,” along with covers of Nirvana and Will Oldham. I would have liked to see “The Death of Jimmy Sturgis,” but in a world where you’re paying $5 for a bottle of Budweiser because you’re afraid if you don’t the place will close down, beggars can’t be choosers.

It was a low-key night for all involved. Wunder and Lozano were joking around as much as they were playing, pointing out friends in the crowd (most of us sat in the pews lining the walls) and joking about the video camera taping the show. Still, I think they probably sounded much better than they knew; the guitar strums of “Hate Money Love Woman” were gorgeous almost in spite of themselves. When it was over, I made my way back around the corner to my car and out the Holland, hitting practically no traffic, as had also been the case on the way into the city. I was back in the valley before midnight. Some nights, you just win.

I know they’re new at it and all, and coming from the always-vibrant New York hardcore scene, it probably slipped through the procedural cracks, but apparently no one told Kings Destroy that nobody comes to see doom in Jersey. When I walked into the Moonlight Mile studio space at 123 Harrison St. in Hoboken on Saturday night for the Obelisk-presented evening with Choirs of Titan, Kings Destroy and The Nolan Gate, the place was packed. I take credit for none of it, but it was great to see anyway. The crowd, the median age of which still had to hire a babysitter for the night — except for the one couple who brought their kid and slapped those industrial earphones on her — looked like they were having a killer time before the show even started. The kegs, of which I saw four, were all gone by the time The Nolan Gate went on stage.

It was a beautiful thing, to be sure.

The name of the first of the four total bands escapes me, but I know it definitely had the word “cock” somewhere in there. They were fronted by Bill Dolan (American Standard) and played a collection of covers, from Misfits to AC/DC, all drunken, all joyous, goods times. It was a lighthearted way to kick off the show, and they pulled in a huge crowd, Dolan being something of a Hoboken luminary. It was a vibe Manhattan‘s Choirs of Titan would more or less completely shift away from with their Wolfmother-style ’70s retro rock. Zepplin riffs through Orange amps; it’s been done by a thousand tight-pants trios before, but guitarist/vocalist Elliot had chops enough to pull it off, and I’m pretty sure I was standing behind the drummer’s father while they played their set, and that’s always charming when the parents come out. Not really my bag, but nothing against them. I’m sure they do just fine in NYC.

I asked the DJ if he had any Kyuss. He didn’t. Sleep? Nope, left it home. He had played “Godzilla” by Fu Manchu earlier, so I thought maybe I’d hit him up for some other classics, but no dice. Back to the beer line.

One thing about the older crowd: they knew how to keep the bathroom clean. Looked roughly the same at the end of the night as it did at the beginning. Apparently sometime in the years between 30-38 is when most dudes learn not to piss all over the seat/floor/surrounding walls/etc. That must be a magical time in a man’s life.

It was Kings Destroy‘s first show ever, which I hadn’t realized. I thought they’d snuck one in before, but frontman Steve Murphy (Uppercut) informed otherwise. Given that, their set was all the more impressive. It’s a rudimentary kind of riff-based doom they play, but interestingly, they do it with the presence and confidence of their many successful years in hardcore. Though they’ve been fans of the genre for a long time, they’re just getting their start in the stoner/doom world, and so watching them on stage was more or less seeing a process of discovery with the added benefit that it was already established musicians and performers doing the discovering.

They played both songs from their recently-reviewed Old Yeller/Medusa 7″, which is due out later this month, along with several others, and it was clear from the start of their set to the finish whose show it was. They’re still very much putting it all together, but I’m excited to see what’s going to happen when they put this material to tape for a full-length. The songs had a consistency of atmosphere and composition that bodes well for the album to come.

The Nolan Gate closed out the night in heavy fashion, but not before Dolan — carrying a Costco-size bottle of Jagermeister — ran back in to give Gang Green‘s “Alcohol,” played by the DJ between bands, a complementing stage show; the chorus of “I’d rather drink than fuck” being the subject of numerous gang chants into the mic, which, it’s worth mentioning, wasn’t turned on. There’s a word for that. It’s called fun. Not something you see every night at what’s ostensibly a doom show.

I hadn’t caught a set from The Nolan Gate in a couple years, and the update I gave myself after watching their set went as follows: “still doing their thing.” The trio have been plugging away in their corner of Hoboken for years now, but they’re always enjoyable to watch, and the “Fjord” shouts, which started up demanding the song before the band even started to play, turned out to be justified. They rocked, and the end of the night was, strangely, every bit as appropriate as the beginning. I did not envy myself for having the task of driving home.

You know damn well I wouldn’t be recommending a show in the hipster hellpit known as Hoboken, NJ, if it wasn’t going to be an incredible time — never mind presenting it, which apparently I do now. Got my hands in everything this week, I guess.

May 8, the NYHC doom supergroup Kings Destroy, whose debut 7″ will be reviewed here shortly, The Nolan Gate (one of my favorite underrated Jersey bands) and Orange-amped riff rockers Choirs of Titan hit stage for a kegger in a Hoboken warehouse space. If you’re nearby and looking for an alternative to the douchebaggery that permeates so much of that town on a given Saturday night, this is the place to be.

It’s more like a house show than one of those dipshit $6 Miller Lite indie rock extravaganzas the rest of the town will be getting down with, so come down to 123 Harrison St. at 9pm sharp and we’ll doom out and raise a toast to being the ones keeping the zombies at bay. Here’s to it. See you there.