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my head changed shape

 
 
De Selby
15:32 / 02.12.01
early this year, I went and saw Mr Jenkinson (aka Squarepusher) do a live set which re-arranged the insides of my head.

the experience was incredible - it was a sonic onslaught, yet it was funky, and experimental and everything I had hoped it would be.

BUT

the most interesting thing about it, was that for at least a week after I couldn't listen to anything other than squarepusher without feeling like it was merely background noise. Nothing felt like music any more.... it was all really dull and plain, no matter how loud/weird/whatever the music was.

after about 2 weeks everything had slowly faded back into normality...

Has anyone else had this sort of thing happen, and who did you see?
 
 
Warrington Minge
20:05 / 02.12.01
quote: Has anyone else had this sort of thing happen, and who did you see?

Yes I have actually. A little while ago I went to see an Add N to X gig. They were excellent but their thunder was well and truly stolen by the support band called HOVERCRAFT. Their set was 45 minutes of sonic distortion. no songs just a relentless soundscape a lot of which felt like improv. Over top of them whilst they played a projector showed a film they had made of fast cut images: rollercoasters, insects fighting and various atrocities etc.
The effect was breathtaking and, for me, totally unexpected. Even more amazing was the fact that the band consisted of a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer. The classic line up of any band yet the sounds they were producing were amongst the most alien and sinister sounds i have ever heard a band produce.

the day after I went straight out and brought their album. As good as it was it in no way matched the ferocity of their live performance. Fantastic performance live. a gig I wont be forgetting in a hurry I can tell you. My head has never been the same shape since.
 
 
Seth
20:55 / 02.12.01
I saw Godspeed You Black Emperor! at the Scala last year. They were magnificent. They played for nearly three hours, of which only four pieces had previously been released. The first set (prior to two encores) was bookended by Moya and Blaise Bailey Finnegan III, but it was Storm that really blew the lid off the place. I felt like I’d been plugged into an electric socket, the sound was so loud, uplifting, affirmative, one almighty shout of “Yes!” to the heavens. I listened to it the next day, and started weeping uncontrollably - I felt as though God were working inside my chest to heal something deep and dark and painful. I still feel like crying when I play it now. Godspeed...! record all their albums live, and they’re one of the few bands who can translate most of their full power in the recording process... they’re just indescribable.

Totally at a loss to explain how awesome this band’s music really is. Everyone here needs a copy of their whole back catalogue (start from most recent and work your way back).

That. Was. An. Order. By. The. Way.

Go. Buy. Everything. They’ve. Ever. Done.

NOW!

(Don’t download it, though. They need the money and you’ll be waiting for fifteen years cos the sound files will be massive).
 
 
rizla mission
21:58 / 02.12.01
quote:Originally posted by Alex Gein:

after about 2 weeks everything had slowly faded back into normality...

Has anyone else had this sort of thing happen, and who did you see?


Mogwai.

Last month.

I literally couldn't listen to any music for a day or two, because my ears weren't working properly.

I couldn't rightly explain it in words (except I did,in this thread)

Melt Banana fairly blew me away too - kind of catapaulted my apprieciation of far-out noise music up a few levels in the space of about 10 seconds.

And the first time I saw Lift To Experience, sitting crosslegged at the front, between the speakers .. fire and brimstone .. people speaking in tongues and shit .. intense.

In fact, I've been really lucky with live shows this year. I've seen some of the best guitar bands in the world..
 
 
De Selby
07:58 / 04.12.01
and it makes you realise the difference between someone who plays an instrument and someone who is a true visionary.

Warrington : a Lux Mammoth show (a local noise duo) that I went to was kinda like that, but friends I spoke to who went to their debut performance (I unfortunately didn't go.... kicking myself in very painful places after I tell ya) where Cat played a wired up cow carcass with various butchering instruments, said that it scarred their brains eternally. People are still talking about it as the most primal "musical" performance ever....

the show I went to, was candlelit, and they walked out in heavy protective gear, and proceeded to play/sample powertools. Theres something just fucking right about a beat roaring out of a powerdrill

mmmmm live music. must find more......

(btw - has anyone seen Aphex Twin live? I've been dying to see him, and apparently he's gonna be coming down my end of the world soon..... )
 
 
rizla mission
13:04 / 04.12.01
I will be seeing him, in April, IN LA!

But enough boasting.

Those Lux Mammoth people sound pretty far-out..
 
 
grant
13:25 / 04.12.01
I really want to see Lift to Experience.

Had a similar experience the first time I saw Sonic Youth.

And a vaguely related experience when I saw Jane's Addiction (it was the Nothing's Shocking tour). Only with them it was visual/showmanship. It wasn't until Perry took off his latex shirt/jacket thing that I was sure he actually wasn't a she.

On both occasions, I hadn't really heard any of their music before, or seen anything about the band. And things never quite seemed the same afterwards.

Jonathan Richman did this too, but in a completely different way. Redefined my sense of *fun* rather than music or performance.
 
 
De Selby
14:08 / 04.12.01
ohhhhh I can only dream of seeing Janes Addiction or Sonic Youth.... such is the problems with living in an isolated city.

Did anyone have the enviable position of seeing early Sonic Youth live? Like around Confusion is Sex? Or what about, and now I'm going old-skool, Throbbing Gristle live?

Lux Mammoth are far out. The audience are given (you aren't allowed to refuse either ) ear plugs for their own protection. They're both bassists by job description though...

but then doesn't Richard D James compose in a bank vault?

(Rizla : smarmy bastard. Leicester would get Mr James frequently (surely?), but you HAVE to see him in LA.... some people get all the luck)

[ 04-12-2001: Message edited by: Alex Gein ]
 
 
penitentvandal
14:36 / 04.12.01
Happened to me watching Diamanda Galas at the Royal Festy Hall in September...A very bizarre sensation, I just seemed to lose any focus except on the song she was doing (some foreign piece - don't know the title) - forgot there was anyone else in the auditorium, forgot there was an auditorium, just had this totally wyrd 'at-one-with-the-music' experience.

I was completely sober at the time, as well - no alcohol, no drugs.

Similar thing happened watching a Finnish band called Circle in a pub in Newcastle. They were singing in this strange language that we all assumed was Finnish. Except it was actually a sort of barbaric language of their own devising. And the lead singer sounded like Ozzy Osbourne when Black Sabbath actually mattered. Well worth checking out.

And Godspeed rock, too. In a kind of epic, soaring, christ-do-we-still-make-this-kind-of-music way. Excellent.
 
 
rizla mission
15:01 / 04.12.01
quote:Originally posted by Alex Gein:

(Rizla : smarmy bastard. Leicester would get Mr James frequently (surely?), but you HAVE to see him in LA.... some people get all the luck)


um .. I don't know if Mr James has EVER played in Leicester .. and assuming he has, I'd imagine his visits are pretty far from 'frequent'..

oh, and my smarmy-ness knows no bounds

Lift To Experience seem fond of Leicester though - they've played here 3 times in 5 months. They'll be a local band before long.

[ 04-12-2001: Message edited by: Rizla Year Zero ]
 
 
De Selby
15:13 / 04.12.01
ok.... but I bet he's at least played on the same continent as you on more than one occasion.

link didn't work by the way.... technology has beaten your smarminess

try here instead...
 
 
deja_vroom
15:44 / 04.12.01
By Warrington Minge:
quote:The classic line up of any band yet the sounds they were producing were amongst the most alien and sinister sounds i have ever heard a band produce

Shit, I wanna do that...
 
 
grant
17:50 / 04.12.01
quote:Originally posted by Alex Gein:
Did anyone have the enviable position of seeing early Sonic Youth live? Like around Confusion is Sex?
[ 04-12-2001: Message edited by: Alex Gein ]


I think I saw them for the Daydream Nation tour first, but it may have been the album before that. It was a really small venue.
 
  
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