The Punch List with Lynn Wise
Metronome Charleston‘s weekly Punch List puts local musicians on the spot with a questionnaire that touches on music, venues, gear, records, vices, and more. This week, bassist/vocalist Lynn Wise of Charleston metal bands Hooded Eagle and Dirty Circus takes a turn.
1. What is your favorite local hang and why?
“Probably the Tin Roof. The staff are always wonderful, they are willing to book bands from any genre, they get a solid mixed crowd, and though I can’t swear to it, I’ve been told you can actually hear my vocals.”
2. You know you’ve played an excellent show when…
“You see hair…everywhere. Sometimes we’ll play, and I’ll look out and see a huge crowd of people, not just headbanging, but full-body banging. Just fully bending at the waist, up and down, as though they are trying to add extra heaviness to compensate for the ridiculous boom and feedback we love playing so much.”
Hooded Eagle at the Tin Roof, 2013 (photo by Ballard Lesemann)
3. What was the last show you attended that really got you fired up in a good or bad way?
“A few weeks ago. We played with Darkest Hour. They are on the polar opposite end of the metal spectrum from what we play, with their breakneck tempos and super-shredding guitarists, but they have been a HUGE inspiration to me for over a decade now. Their set was exactly what you’d want from a fast metal band. Precision shred, a charismatic vocalist, and amazing thrash riffs. I felt like I was 15 again…I even started a circle pit.”
4. Define your musical style in exactly 10 words.
“Horrifying, depressing, painfully slow, obnoxiously loud, heartbreakingly beautiful blackened doom.”
5. What’s your theme song?
“‘No Joy’ by Khanate. Wait — mine, or the band’s? My personal theme song might be ‘Mind Eraser’ by Municipal Waste.”
6. Gear-wise, what’s is your irreplaceable baby?
“My Catalinbread SFT bass overdrive. It really takes my tone to a disgusting place, without killing the midrange, the way a Big Muff knockoff does.”
7. What’s the most overplayed album in your collection?
“Either Watching From a Distance by Warning or Longing by the band Bell Witch. Warning is a British doom metal band that sounds like the saddest, slowest Black Sabbath worship ever. It’s been in my figurative stereo nonstop for about three years now. Bell Witch is a two-piece with a guy playing what should be both bass and guitar parts on a six-string bass.”
8. When was the last time you were genuinely star-struck?
“I have a super punk-rock mindset when it comes to musicians, so unless I meet a bonafide guitar god like Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, I can’t imagine it happening. For the most part, musicians — even in bands you love — are the same people you attend shows and go to the bar with. They just happened to be lucky enough that people were touched by their music.”
9. What’s your poison?
“My standard answer would be THC, but that’s more like my daily vitamin.”
10. In 10 years, I will be…
“Letting the note I hit nine years ago continue to feedback.”
Lynn Wise plays a fretless four-string bass through a very loud amplifier in Hooded Eagle. He growls, screams, and sings, too. Hooded Eagle initially formed in 2010 out of the remnants of “post metal” band Sonant. The current lineup solidified last year when Lynn was joined by drummer Mark Appelt and guitarists Matt Wolfe and Bobby Thibault. Their sludgy, gloomy style (they peg it as “funeral doom”) and complex arrangements and time signatures set them apart from much of the Carolina metal scene.
Lynn recently began playing with local Southern metal four-piece Dirty Circus as well.
Visit facebook.com/HoodedEagle and facebook.com/TheDirtyCircus for more.
Hooded Eagle at the Tin Roof during 98 Rock’s band battle, March 2013 (photo by Ballard Lesemann)
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About the Author
Ballard Lesemann is a musician and writer. Born and raised in Charleston, S.C., he spent years playing in bands and working for Flagpole Magazine in the bustling music town of Athens, Ga. He returned to his hometown and served more than seven years as the Charleston City Paper's music editor. He's better at drumming than he is at playing guitar.
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