review of gnod, with womb + csb - fuel, fri 25 march

Friday last week at Fuel, Womb and Cryptic Salve Band supported Gnod.

Womb opened the evening. I think it was the largest number of musicians they've had playing for a gig. And although it may not have been the largest audience it was certainly the most tightly packed.

I arrived a little late and thought they'd started. But despite people watching it was obviously just the soundcheck.

Womb's set - when they did start - wasn't the best I've seen. It was good - and it started strongly jumping straight into a mass of noise. But for a lot of the set it felt kind of one-note without the light and shade that would have kept me with it.

The group were propulsive and had I been in the mood for something that didn't really change I would have enjoyed it more. There were also flickerings of something interesting at the end. A tonal variation that seemed to be moving the sound somewhere else. And then it was over.

A good set, but not my favourite. It'll be posted online soon enough and you'll be able to check for yourself.

I'm not going to say much about Cryptic Salve Band. I've seen then described as noise/black metal/hardcore. To be honest I could only really hear the black metal/hardcore elements - which aren't of that much interest to me - so it wouldn't be fair to get critical.

They're certainly good at what they do, and the crowd loved it. Without talking to the band but seeing them around the venue through the rest of the evening they seem like nice guys without a trace of attitude. Which isn't meant to be as condescending as it sounds.

Then it was Gnod. Now I'll confess that over the last two years - until the last three or so times I've seen them - I'd found Gnod a bit patchy. Back in 2007/8 I saw some great gigs. Then there was a period when a lot of what I saw from them was often a bit dull. But over the last few months it's picked up again.

Friday was absolutely outstanding - the kind of gig you read about or hear rumours of. Hot as a furnace once the beats started flying. People and objects went crowd surfing. Bear in mind this is Fuel. There's barely room for company let alone a crowd - much less crowd surfing.

With that kind of press and the lack of stage it's amazing the band and their kit didn't get more battered than they actually did. But despite that Gnod coped with it all good-naturedly - and it really wasn't an aggressive crowd.

There was one kid (and later on his friend) with way too much attitude grabbing for the mic throughout the set. But again it wasn't really ever a problem. And after Gnod were done he was handed the mic and turned out to be a pretty good freestyler. Some of the band joined in for a couple of minutes and it all ended well.

The set itself was what you'd expect from Gnod at their best - drone-ish, motorik, psych-shanties, heavy beats, heavy bass, voice drowned in reverb and the swirling noise, blissful din. You should've been there. And the chaos - the crowd surfing and freestyling mentioned, a pedal accidentally unhooked by the surging crowd at least once. Oh yes.

And that wasn't the end of the night - there was still Gnoddisco spinning records as the crowd gradually thinned out towards 2 or 3, or whenever the place closed. Toward the end people even joining in the records on percussion and guitar. The guitar'd be half of Cryptic Salve Band.

And then people went off different places to continue the party into Saturday. Which is where we came in - sort of.