Seattle’s Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band’s songs are as amalgamous as the band itself. With heavy post-punk bass lines, Modest Mouse guitar lines, and Strokes-like drumming, MSHVB transcends all these things in the ways that they put them together. Using heavy drumming, keyboards and distorted guitar, and alternating loud and gentle tracks they skim the surface of nostalgia for a post-industrial era that can never be returned to.

All of this is most evident during their live show. They opened for Cursive at Neumos a few weeks ago and blew the audience away. The excessive amount of drums on the stage was not overcompensating for the skill of their 14-year-old drummer, who was superb, but at one point did function as something to throw tennis balls off of as the second drummer held part of the kit over her shoulder.

So what could make a live show as powerful as theirs even more intense? Maybe they could be the first band in the continental United States to play on an active volcano? Yeah! Science agrees, this is great idea:

The concert, at Mount St. Helens’ Johnston Ridge Observatory on August 15, 2009 at 6:00 pm, will support development of the “Taking the Pulse of an Active Volcano” exhibit at Mount St. Helens. The event will begin with a presentation by Dr. John Bishop, a published Mount St. Helens researcher, who will discuss the changing landscape since the 1980 eruption. Tickets are $25 for the concert and entrance to the National Volcanic Monument or $35 for the concert, entrance fees plus a guided hike. Tickets are available online at www.mshvbconcert.eventbrite.com.

For an additional $10.00 per ticket, guests can choose to participate in one of two guided hikes on the Boundary Trail. The hikes will leave from Johnston Ridge Observatory, cover approximately 6 miles over 3 hours and treat hikers to awe-inspiring views of Mount St. Helens, Spirit Lake and the Pumice Plain. Knowledgeable Institute volunteers will share the exciting events of the 1980 eruption along the way and point out the telltale signs of geologic activity.