Bucket Wearing Guitarist rocks Portland

For performing musicians, image can have a lot to do with how their audience engages and puts a face to their music. But for some artists, like underground solo guitarist Brian Carroll, better known by his stage name, Buckethead, many followers have never seen a face at all. This is due to Carrol’s onstage persona, in which he dons a white, faceless mask and a KFC bucket atop his head as he shreds the electric guitar.

I had the chance to see Buckethead last year, and the enigmatic guitarist returned to Portland again on Oct. 3 for another mesmerizing show at Revolution Hall.

The venue itself is relatively small, which makes for a much more intimate concert experience, especially for those on the main floor standing just beneath the stage. As fans in the pit shouted, “Buckethead!”, waiting for him to emerge, the stage filled with an impressive amount of smoke. Though he normally performs solo at his shows, this time he was accompanied by drummer Brian “Brain” Mantia and bassist Del Rey Brewer. This allowed for more variety during the show compared to last year when Buckethead was all by himself. Instead of his usual backing tracks, Buckethead had two bandmates to play alongside, and they even made time for a few bass guitar solos and a drum solo.

One of the most enjoyable things about Buckethead’s performance is his ability to make such dramatic transitions across different playing styles. During this show Buckethead would begin with a slow heavy metal riff then suddenly jump into a quick jazzy breakdown that drew lots of cheering and applause from both the crowd, myself included.

Buckethead is a unique example of the aptly named “masked musician” in that he is far from what is considered mainstream. However, across many different genres of music there are artists who make the choice to put on a certain face or persona, in order to hide their true identity. This is seen in all different degrees, from the spooky masks worn by members of the heavy metal band Slipknot to when the members of KISS hid their identities through the flashy, black-and-white makeup and costumes they wore for their concerts.

More recently there have been numerous DJs who have followed suit with this theme. They include Marshmello, who dresses in all white and wears a big, white marshmallow-shaped helmet with a stylized smiley face for both his shows and his Instagram page, and the legendary electronic music duo, Daft Punk, arguably among the pioneers to this idea in the dance music genre with their signature, robotic-looking helmets.

While the types of music may be different for these faceless musicians, the concept of going to see these mysterious performers raises a similar question from their respective fans: Why wear the mask in the first place?

Though this brings up an array of fascinating backstories that explain the origins of each persona, there are values that many artists like this share in common. In Daft Punk’s case it was simply a method for them to escape the pressures of stardom because that part of their fame felt meaningless to them, and it also allowed fans to be more immersed in the music.

As for Carroll, he is an artist so deeply dedicated to the character of Buckethead that when MTV News asked about his mask he replied, “There is no mask.” And, although a few of his bigger hits were missing from this particular show, there was certainly no shortage of headbanging riffs and blistering solos he’s known for.

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