womb @ salutation last night - review

Haha! So - Womb's gig at Ducie Bridge was ok but a bit - you know - not quite there. Last night in the even more confined space of The Salutation they were fucking amazing.

After it finished I was enthusing I thought it was the best so far. Definitely as good as the acoustic set at Okasional Cafe and the set at Gullivers.

It's still making me smile, wanna dance, make music, run up and down and scream.

Right right right - ok - first up The Sandells in support with their self-described krautpunk. A much more structured and conventional sound - but thrilling nontheless.

I mean they say krautpunk but there's a fairly heavy dose of 60's guitar pop and early 80's indie sounds going into the mix too. And no bad thing. And they were excellent. Much bouncing - band and audience having a lot of fun and giving it loads.

Go see 'em - they'll make you happy.

And then it was Womb. Some last minute soundcheck bits and pieces before BAM - straight into looping rhythms, pounding bass, harsh textures, swirling keys, guitar and sax - bouncing even more. Woohoo!

*breath*

Started out a little mid-paced but picked up quickly. Hammering drums and all - the bass drum migrating across the tiny stage - pushed back once or twice. Hollered vocals - two, sometimes three voices most the time.

A big group this time - ten women on stage - or four on stage, the rest around it since they couldn't fit on. Guitar, bass - two basses? (or was it two guitars?), banjo, drums, percussion, keyboards, saxophone, vocals, noise making objects - metal rings, contact mic-ed plaster ball and bit of metal - and plenty other bits and pieces.

The sound was really fucking well integrated - it was sometimes hard to pick out keyboards from saxophone from guitar from voice.

And lots and lots of percussion - beating singing bowl, bell, snare, what looked like a massive cowbell (what am I, a musician?), stamping - and of course the drums. Haha!

Mostly the band couldn't move about - it's a confined space - but there was some shifting from mic to mic for vocals and noise makers - the monitor got overturned. The amplified plaster ball was satisfyingly smashed early on and ground in the floor.

I'd say narcotic - but that suggests something a lot more dopey than the ecstatic, pounding, spinning racket that got right in your body, lifted you up, got you high, sweated out and dived back in again.

Listen - on this form if you don't dance - or bounce depending on the space available - you're dead. I mean you could try and resist - nail yourself to the floor maybe - but only if you want bloody holes in your feet.

It was fantastic - somewhere around 40-45 minutes but it felt a lot less - the venue had to call time on the band or they would have gone on a lot longer. And no bad thing.

Yeah yeah - my heart's racing just writing about it, reading back - I want a time machine, do it over again.

Next chance to see them tomorrow at Kraak - 8pm doing the soundtrack for Lynchian Dirt Fight. If it's anywhere close to as good as last night it'll be fucking great.