csb, klaus kinski, gnod + drunk in hell
Two gigs. Oh fuck. Look, I was going to review Womb and Mandog supporting Damo Suzuki at Islington Mill. And it was great and all - I had a fantastic time - but...
Womb kind of sputtered and were only intermittently as excellent as they can be. Part of the problem was the sound - everything louder than everything else - which meant that subtle sounds or anything through the mics or contact mics tended to get drowned out. I also got the impression the group never really relaxed and got a bit overwhelmed by the occasion. They were good despite that, just not as good as they can be. Don't worry though - they always come back strong.
Mandog were better, getting really excellent grooves going, and with echoes of all kinds of music from the '60s onwards. Again I was up the front dancing - but there was a kind of nagging sense that it was all pretty efficient - that if they'd maybe just loosen up a bit and deviate from the script they might hit something properly special.
And Damo. Damo did a lot of work. A lot of the gig he seemed to be pushing the musicians along through his voice and will alone. It started slowly and took a long while to get going. Nonetheless I danced and got so hot I had to take my shirt off. The last half hour was excellent - it finally seemed like the band caught up and started running a beat that worked. Then it was done - an excellent evening and I was all ready to blog it.
Then Saturday happened.
Fucking hell Saturday happened! Gullivers grabbed Saturday and dumped it somewhere far away from Oldham Street.
I think I missed the first band. The first that I saw were Cryptic Salve Band. Now last time I saw them I honestly didn't get it. They were fine but it never connected. This time it worked a lot better for me. They roared and hammered and churned and screamed and it was great. People bounced and had fun
Then it was Klaus Kinski. Kind of a mixed set. To be honest I thought the first track was proper shit. The rhythms didn't work, nothing seemed to work. I tried dancing but there was nothing to dance to. It could be I was starting to come up and my body was feeling something else than the band were playing and it took a while to get in sync. It could be they were doing something more subtle than I expected. Whatever. The second track started like more of the same but gradually improved.After that it was fine. I got into the music and danced through the set which was brutally truncated after what felt like about 15-20 minutes.
They were good - but I didn't enjoy them as much as CSB. Or come anywhere near understanding the enthusiasm some friends have for them. Maybe they were having a bad day, maybe there's something I'm missing. I'll reserve judgement - they haven't convinced me yet. And given what followed they would have had to do something fucking exceptional to leave a lasting impression.
Who the fuck was headlining? Gnod? Drunk In Hell? Neither? Both? It doesn't fucking matter. It's just a shame one had to play before the other. Or maybe its better that way. Amazing energies from both bands. But different energies from both bands.
When Gnod connect with the audience something amazing happens. It's been that way the last four times I've seen them now. There's a blurring of the boundaries between band and audience - it becomes a properly communal experience. The energy feeds back and forwards and lifts the venue somewhere else. If the spirit moves you you have to dance and if the spirit don't move you then I'm sorry but you've got stone where there should be blood. I could dance all night to that shit. And I would've.
There were technical problems with the mics from time to time - for once not caused by people jumping on the pedals and all over the band - but only because the stage was in the way. And there is some tension I'm not going to fucking even get into but I can't ignore since it ended with Paddy bleeding from the nose over half the audience partway through Drunk In Hell. And that's the last word - no gossip. Fuck you - it's not your business or mine.
What matters - what mattered on the night was the music. Which was just brilliant. Time was you'd see Gnod and every gig, every CD was a different band. Half of those Gnods were good to see but had a tendency to wander off down slghtly shapeless dead ends. These days they're a lot tighter - sometimes perilously verging on predictable - but always with a close enough rapport to the audience to be able to respond. To be able to shift the pulse and breath of the music - to occupy and create it fresh each time.
The music chops and lurches, sways and bounces, churns and lunges and lifts you up. It rolls you around and you don't ever want it to stop. The band hand out percussion and people join in and the songs feel like they go on forever - but only in the very best way. It must be like seeing Can or Faust at their height before anyone knew who they were. Then it ends. And you're back where you were euphoric and sweaty and you want to do it all again. But usually that's it. Just drifting off - to jam with friends, or a party, or maybe you really have to get home.
This time. This time though there was Drunk In Hell. How do you explain the difference? How do you explain the difference without seeming to put down one or the other band? With Gnod you dance. You dance and you carry the beat around for hours after. With Drunk In Hell you mosh or get the fuck out of there. You sweat yourself clean and feel great and go home.
So I spent the set jumping into other people, getting pushed around, supporting crowdsurfers, lifting up friends, shouting and waving, falling over, and jumping into people all over again. It's sweaty upstairs in Gullivers anyway and I was soaked from head to toe after Gnod - so it's just as well I had the lemonade and two glasses of water between the bands. How I got away with one tiny bruise is beyond me to understand though.
What a fucking release. Drunk In Hell - like I said, a different kind of energy. It would have worked either way - them first and Gnod to close - or the way it was on the night. A happy energy mind. People were smiling and having fun. Well, apart from the exception I already mentioned. There's not a lot more to say. Music's meant to be performed, danced to and listened to. Reading and writing about it's kind of superfluous except as a reminder - or to give you some idea what you might get from a group.
Drunk In Hell pulse, pummel, shout, roar, rumble, thunder, pound and bounce. You're thrown around with a smile on your face and fall out the other side - and maybe something hurts in the morning.
I haven't had as good a night in a while. Got home somewhere around 5:30 and went to bed. I got up 11:30. It would've been 10:30 but if it's too much information you're after I needed a wank and sometimes you have to take time. Yeah, it was great thanks.
In the afternoon I went for a long, fast bike ride. It was hot but I needed the sun and the exercise. I'm coming back to the idea that I'd like to carry out performances that require concentrated physical exertion over relatively brief periods. I'll get planning. Both Saturday night and cycling out along the Mersey on Sunday gave me that amazing feeling of how great it is to be in my body.
I love the feeling of being healthy and strong. I love to test myself - see how fast I can cycle or run, how high I can jump. And then those places where body and mind come together - being right at the edge of my ability to control the bike where a tiny mistake would see gravity take over very hard - or seeing how long I can face a fear.
The physical is important to me both personally and in my art. That's why I love making sound and performing. That's why I love making sculptural works. That's why I love to cycle, walk and exercise. Yeah yeah, and masturbation or fucking if I ever get the chance. Oh... it's only what you were thinking anyway.
Womb kind of sputtered and were only intermittently as excellent as they can be. Part of the problem was the sound - everything louder than everything else - which meant that subtle sounds or anything through the mics or contact mics tended to get drowned out. I also got the impression the group never really relaxed and got a bit overwhelmed by the occasion. They were good despite that, just not as good as they can be. Don't worry though - they always come back strong.
Mandog were better, getting really excellent grooves going, and with echoes of all kinds of music from the '60s onwards. Again I was up the front dancing - but there was a kind of nagging sense that it was all pretty efficient - that if they'd maybe just loosen up a bit and deviate from the script they might hit something properly special.
And Damo. Damo did a lot of work. A lot of the gig he seemed to be pushing the musicians along through his voice and will alone. It started slowly and took a long while to get going. Nonetheless I danced and got so hot I had to take my shirt off. The last half hour was excellent - it finally seemed like the band caught up and started running a beat that worked. Then it was done - an excellent evening and I was all ready to blog it.
Then Saturday happened.
Fucking hell Saturday happened! Gullivers grabbed Saturday and dumped it somewhere far away from Oldham Street.
I think I missed the first band. The first that I saw were Cryptic Salve Band. Now last time I saw them I honestly didn't get it. They were fine but it never connected. This time it worked a lot better for me. They roared and hammered and churned and screamed and it was great. People bounced and had fun
Then it was Klaus Kinski. Kind of a mixed set. To be honest I thought the first track was proper shit. The rhythms didn't work, nothing seemed to work. I tried dancing but there was nothing to dance to. It could be I was starting to come up and my body was feeling something else than the band were playing and it took a while to get in sync. It could be they were doing something more subtle than I expected. Whatever. The second track started like more of the same but gradually improved.After that it was fine. I got into the music and danced through the set which was brutally truncated after what felt like about 15-20 minutes.
They were good - but I didn't enjoy them as much as CSB. Or come anywhere near understanding the enthusiasm some friends have for them. Maybe they were having a bad day, maybe there's something I'm missing. I'll reserve judgement - they haven't convinced me yet. And given what followed they would have had to do something fucking exceptional to leave a lasting impression.
Who the fuck was headlining? Gnod? Drunk In Hell? Neither? Both? It doesn't fucking matter. It's just a shame one had to play before the other. Or maybe its better that way. Amazing energies from both bands. But different energies from both bands.
When Gnod connect with the audience something amazing happens. It's been that way the last four times I've seen them now. There's a blurring of the boundaries between band and audience - it becomes a properly communal experience. The energy feeds back and forwards and lifts the venue somewhere else. If the spirit moves you you have to dance and if the spirit don't move you then I'm sorry but you've got stone where there should be blood. I could dance all night to that shit. And I would've.
There were technical problems with the mics from time to time - for once not caused by people jumping on the pedals and all over the band - but only because the stage was in the way. And there is some tension I'm not going to fucking even get into but I can't ignore since it ended with Paddy bleeding from the nose over half the audience partway through Drunk In Hell. And that's the last word - no gossip. Fuck you - it's not your business or mine.
What matters - what mattered on the night was the music. Which was just brilliant. Time was you'd see Gnod and every gig, every CD was a different band. Half of those Gnods were good to see but had a tendency to wander off down slghtly shapeless dead ends. These days they're a lot tighter - sometimes perilously verging on predictable - but always with a close enough rapport to the audience to be able to respond. To be able to shift the pulse and breath of the music - to occupy and create it fresh each time.
The music chops and lurches, sways and bounces, churns and lunges and lifts you up. It rolls you around and you don't ever want it to stop. The band hand out percussion and people join in and the songs feel like they go on forever - but only in the very best way. It must be like seeing Can or Faust at their height before anyone knew who they were. Then it ends. And you're back where you were euphoric and sweaty and you want to do it all again. But usually that's it. Just drifting off - to jam with friends, or a party, or maybe you really have to get home.
This time. This time though there was Drunk In Hell. How do you explain the difference? How do you explain the difference without seeming to put down one or the other band? With Gnod you dance. You dance and you carry the beat around for hours after. With Drunk In Hell you mosh or get the fuck out of there. You sweat yourself clean and feel great and go home.
So I spent the set jumping into other people, getting pushed around, supporting crowdsurfers, lifting up friends, shouting and waving, falling over, and jumping into people all over again. It's sweaty upstairs in Gullivers anyway and I was soaked from head to toe after Gnod - so it's just as well I had the lemonade and two glasses of water between the bands. How I got away with one tiny bruise is beyond me to understand though.
What a fucking release. Drunk In Hell - like I said, a different kind of energy. It would have worked either way - them first and Gnod to close - or the way it was on the night. A happy energy mind. People were smiling and having fun. Well, apart from the exception I already mentioned. There's not a lot more to say. Music's meant to be performed, danced to and listened to. Reading and writing about it's kind of superfluous except as a reminder - or to give you some idea what you might get from a group.
Drunk In Hell pulse, pummel, shout, roar, rumble, thunder, pound and bounce. You're thrown around with a smile on your face and fall out the other side - and maybe something hurts in the morning.
I haven't had as good a night in a while. Got home somewhere around 5:30 and went to bed. I got up 11:30. It would've been 10:30 but if it's too much information you're after I needed a wank and sometimes you have to take time. Yeah, it was great thanks.
In the afternoon I went for a long, fast bike ride. It was hot but I needed the sun and the exercise. I'm coming back to the idea that I'd like to carry out performances that require concentrated physical exertion over relatively brief periods. I'll get planning. Both Saturday night and cycling out along the Mersey on Sunday gave me that amazing feeling of how great it is to be in my body.
I love the feeling of being healthy and strong. I love to test myself - see how fast I can cycle or run, how high I can jump. And then those places where body and mind come together - being right at the edge of my ability to control the bike where a tiny mistake would see gravity take over very hard - or seeing how long I can face a fear.
The physical is important to me both personally and in my art. That's why I love making sound and performing. That's why I love making sculptural works. That's why I love to cycle, walk and exercise. Yeah yeah, and masturbation or fucking if I ever get the chance. Oh... it's only what you were thinking anyway.
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