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What is noise? To the ears of drummer extraordinaire Brian Chippendale, it's a genre tag that's been applied to Providence power-duo Lightning Bolt for their entire 18-year existence. "The label of noise on us is strange," he explains from the van in the midst of a tour that will see the Bolt decimate the Paradise this Sunday. "Because people will say, 'I can't understand what's going on, it's just crazy noise!', and they're talking about a four-chord song! All through the '90s, I saw actual noise acts — Masonna, Merzbow, that sort of thing. From day one, I've always looked at us as a rock band." Hear, hear: Chippendale and bassist Brian Gibson may ply their sonic wares at mind-melting volume, wear masks, and play on the floor of even the biggest venue they tromp through, all in the service of playful-seeming fuzz-romps underpinned by Chippendale's devious and ingenious trap work — but at the end of the day, it's all full-on stomping capital-R rock of the highest grade, with everything louder than everything else. "Certain bands become normal when they figure out what they want to do," Chippendale says. "We finally started to sound like Motörhead, which is what we wanted to sound like the whole time."
LIGHTNING BOLT | Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm Ave, Boston | September 23 | Tickets: $17
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