I went to a halloween gig last night consisting of a few bands and some djs and stuff. It was at the forum in London on a thursday and I was looking forward to it quite a lot. Myself and Lyn finished up work at 6 and went to the venue straight away because Lightning Bolt were playing at 6.30. This was somewhat annoying because they were the ones I really wanted to see, but I guess because they refuse to play on the stage and just play in the middle of the audience it was probably easier to have them first before the venue filled up. Anyway, this was a good start. A wall of distortion and drums and happy noises and somehow cute and cheerful but aggressive sound explosions of goodness. I particularly liked the slower noise making better, but the faster songs were surprisingly giggly. Overall I liked the fact that they didn't seem like a band of chin stroking seriousness, which can be the case if you have two fellas making noise type experimentalish rock.
One thing though: As they seemed to play out of their own Pa the sound just wasn't loud enough for such a large venue. It was ok for us because we went on the thursday so it wasn't busy and you could get nice and close, but I can only imagine on the friday it would have been frustrating not being able to get close enough to the speakers. I don't think Lightning Bolt suited the venue at all either. They really needed a dark sweaty basement with a low roof. Still orsum though.
They also reminded me of the droog band a bit which I liked.
Next up is a band called Pissed Jeans. Pissed Jeans were shit. The lead singer looked like he worked in a call centre in insurance or IT or something, which I guess was their wacky modus operandi cause you know its funny seeing a straight laced person sticking their finger up their bum and gyrating their hips. Only problem with this is he looked fucking uncomfortable doing all this stuff, like he was an actual IT/insurance guy (which I later found out he is) I can't explain it any better than it would be like Clark Kent changing into Superman and still having all Clark Kents mannerisms and really dumbed down and shit Superman mannerisms. They also sounded like any other fucking crap punk band. Their lyrics are supposed to be biting and sartirical. I didn't notice. I just thought they sounded shit. The drummer was good though, and young people seemed to like jumping up and down and bashing themselves into each other and walls to it.
Next was Wooden Shjips. These guys had beards like ZZ top and clothes like a American survivalist. I really liked them. They made me smile a lot with their kind minimalish, hypnotic, repetitive, surf music. They looked like they smoked heaps of weed, and I couldn't help feel that they kinda just kept things looping along because they were forgetting chord changes etc or just wanted to do them in their own time. It is strangely accessible music and it made me have a large grin for the duration.
Next on the agenda was Les Savy Fav. The best thing I could muster about them was their music was harmless. I don't think thats a good thing to say about music. The lead singer tried to make up for it by running around the audience and flashing his belly, and in that way I guess he got the crowd worked up a bit.....but the music was just so........harmless. Like a really inoffensive dog, thats neither cute enough to pat or ugly enough to take note of.
I had high hopes for Shellac. They weren't met in anyway. From what people had told me they were awesome live. I thought they sounded amazing in terms of actual sound production ie its seemed obvious that the Pa etc for the night had been tailored for them, but I just found there music pretty boring. Maybe its my fault because I don't know enough about rock, but, to my ears, the songs themselves sounded like 300 other bands I had already heard. I guess maybe they are just not my type of music. I gave up 3/4 of the way through and went and stood outside in the cold and smoked and talked to a guy who was wearing a labrador cross as a scarf. It was awesome. The dog just sat there. (it wasn't dead) He didn't even have to hold it on. I was slightly jealous. One disadvantage was the bouncers wouldn't let him into the gig though.
Om were on after Shellac, and I found them terribly boring. The singer/guitarist looked a lot like this guy Ben Comry I went to school with and seemed to behave exactly the same as my fourteen year old memories of him as well. They were pretty drab (not drab in a "this music is so drab it makes me wanna cut myself" way either just drab......kinda like off brown curtains) and pretty boring. We left then.
That was about the night. Also of note was that Andy Weatherall of two lone swordsman fame was djing in between acts, but considering his considerable talent as a dj it was a disappointment. He really was just a juke box. I would have liked to see him play some more challenging music and maybe play for longer at the end.
I enjoyed the night despite being less than enthused with any of the later acts. It is good having a variation of stuff on(although I thought they could have taken that further) and I never got bored.
Lightning Bolt was ace, and now I can't stop listening to them.
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