review - womb at ducie bridge 20 may
Womb played at Ducie Bridge on Friday last week.
It was partway through a long day for me. Straight after work I'd gone to Bury for the last of Rainer Ganahl's seminars ahead of his exhibiton opening for the Text Festival. That finished round about on time but I didn't get the tram till just after 9:45. I thought that meant I'd missed Womb - but no, they hadn't started yet.
Ducie Bridge is a weird venue - I really don't like live music where people sit around tables up to the stage. The stage is in a corner next to the bar and it means you can't get much above 20-30 people able to see the bands.
Womb played a good set - some bits of it were great. I have seen them play better - Gullivers when Gary Fisher was in support, and Okasional Cafe. And I've certainly seen them play worse - Fuel when they supported Gnod and somehow never took off most obviously.
Let's take the negatives first. It was kind of single paced and within a relatively limited sonic range. There were also a couple of moments when a lot of the audience thought the set was coming to an end. Which perhaps indicates a slight lack of focus or control.
But there were a lot of good things too. Contact mic-ed bits of metal where the sound was almost indistinguishable from the scraping of guitar and bass strings. The textures of toy instruments, chains, and a singing bowl being struck. The trumpet and saxophone sometimes echoing the scrapings, sometimes echoing voices, often providing melodic lines. Keyboard sometimes anchoring things with bass swirls, sometimes more percussive, other times meoldic or more usually harmonic.
The overall impression was of a bass-heavy set. Doomy but uplifting and positive at the same time with a nice mix of the structured and melodic and the more abstract and textural. But that slight lack of focus or control I mentioned may have kept the set from truly flying - may be why it remained mainly bass-heavy and doomy - and a little mid-paced.
It was nonetheless a wonderful set. I was bouncing about where I stood as far as I could - and if the bloody tables hadn't been in the way would have been nearer the front, dancing. Most people there seemed to enjoy the band too.
One of the strengths of the band is that there is an architectural flexibility built-in. The structural focus shifts from one part of the group to another throughout any given set.
So at Ducie Bridge the set started with contact mic-ed metal and percussive objects as the principal sounds. That was taken over by angular sounds from guitar and bass. As the sounds accumulated and the set gathered momentum drums and keyboards became more prominent - providing some structure. Then the sax and trumpet brought a different colour in.
This push and pull - the interplay of different parts of the band - keeps your interest. And of course it can fall apart or become sluggish - but at its best the different elements bounce off each other and multiply the energy of the band and the audience.
The band didn't quite manage to achieve that for the whole set but there were a lot of moments when the sound started to lift and I found myself smiling even wider than I was before. Womb have a lot of those moments - it's a pretty amazing thing.
I plan to be there when Womb play the Salutation this Thursday (26 May) with The Sandells. That should be an excellent gig.
I have to say I far preferred Womb to Brothers and Sisters who were headlining. They seem nice enough - but competently played dull funk isn't really my thing. I can see them going down really well at summer festivals though. But since it's not something I particularly enjoy it's not fair to be critical.
After the gig I went across town to Bollox with a bunch of friends and spent the rest of the night dancing. Pixies, Peaches, Dusty Springfield, Iggy Pop and more. After that we went back to a flat and carried on listening to music and making sounds up to about 6 on Saturday morning.
It was partway through a long day for me. Straight after work I'd gone to Bury for the last of Rainer Ganahl's seminars ahead of his exhibiton opening for the Text Festival. That finished round about on time but I didn't get the tram till just after 9:45. I thought that meant I'd missed Womb - but no, they hadn't started yet.
Ducie Bridge is a weird venue - I really don't like live music where people sit around tables up to the stage. The stage is in a corner next to the bar and it means you can't get much above 20-30 people able to see the bands.
Womb played a good set - some bits of it were great. I have seen them play better - Gullivers when Gary Fisher was in support, and Okasional Cafe. And I've certainly seen them play worse - Fuel when they supported Gnod and somehow never took off most obviously.
Let's take the negatives first. It was kind of single paced and within a relatively limited sonic range. There were also a couple of moments when a lot of the audience thought the set was coming to an end. Which perhaps indicates a slight lack of focus or control.
But there were a lot of good things too. Contact mic-ed bits of metal where the sound was almost indistinguishable from the scraping of guitar and bass strings. The textures of toy instruments, chains, and a singing bowl being struck. The trumpet and saxophone sometimes echoing the scrapings, sometimes echoing voices, often providing melodic lines. Keyboard sometimes anchoring things with bass swirls, sometimes more percussive, other times meoldic or more usually harmonic.
The overall impression was of a bass-heavy set. Doomy but uplifting and positive at the same time with a nice mix of the structured and melodic and the more abstract and textural. But that slight lack of focus or control I mentioned may have kept the set from truly flying - may be why it remained mainly bass-heavy and doomy - and a little mid-paced.
It was nonetheless a wonderful set. I was bouncing about where I stood as far as I could - and if the bloody tables hadn't been in the way would have been nearer the front, dancing. Most people there seemed to enjoy the band too.
One of the strengths of the band is that there is an architectural flexibility built-in. The structural focus shifts from one part of the group to another throughout any given set.
So at Ducie Bridge the set started with contact mic-ed metal and percussive objects as the principal sounds. That was taken over by angular sounds from guitar and bass. As the sounds accumulated and the set gathered momentum drums and keyboards became more prominent - providing some structure. Then the sax and trumpet brought a different colour in.
This push and pull - the interplay of different parts of the band - keeps your interest. And of course it can fall apart or become sluggish - but at its best the different elements bounce off each other and multiply the energy of the band and the audience.
The band didn't quite manage to achieve that for the whole set but there were a lot of moments when the sound started to lift and I found myself smiling even wider than I was before. Womb have a lot of those moments - it's a pretty amazing thing.
I plan to be there when Womb play the Salutation this Thursday (26 May) with The Sandells. That should be an excellent gig.
I have to say I far preferred Womb to Brothers and Sisters who were headlining. They seem nice enough - but competently played dull funk isn't really my thing. I can see them going down really well at summer festivals though. But since it's not something I particularly enjoy it's not fair to be critical.
After the gig I went across town to Bollox with a bunch of friends and spent the rest of the night dancing. Pixies, Peaches, Dusty Springfield, Iggy Pop and more. After that we went back to a flat and carried on listening to music and making sounds up to about 6 on Saturday morning.
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