LONDON CITY NIGHTS

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Review: 'Kissing the Shotgun Goodnight' at the Ovalhouse, 8th October 2016

Sunday, October 9, 2016 - by londoncitynights · - 0 Comments

Kissing the Shotgun Goodnight walks into the room swinging its big dick all over the place. The poster features a completely kickass drawing of a horrified person with their guts exploding all over the place (see above). The flyer promises "a 120 decibel suicide note. a linguistic kaleidoscope of caustic cartoons, crackpot fantasies and demented erotica." On your way into the theatre they hand you a pair of earplugs and make sure you pay attention to a warning that:

I'd saw this flyer a couple of months back and figured "yeah, this is the show for me". Lately I've been crushed under a truckload of syrupy theatrical shite - shows about cheerleaders learning to love and anti-drug PSAs masquerading as shitty rock musicals. It all left a bad taste in my mouth, and I was craving something aggressively fucked up  - and Christopher Brett Bailey sounded like he was going to provide.

So I parked myself in the front row centre and prepared myself for not only blown out ear-drums but a blown mind. 

I didn't get either. What Kissing the Shotgun Goodnight turned out to be was an okay post-rock gig. Maybe I should have lowered my expectations given the flyer we were handed on the way in, with the punchy punk advertising copy amended with annotations to point out that all that awesome sounding demented erotica stuff had been deemed "not relevant", the show had been reduced by about a third (from 100 minutes to 70) and that apparently, we were in for a concert "sprinkled with words".

What's more disappointing is that the sprinkling of words we did get were awesome. I'd heard that Bailey was a fantastically lurid poet, and his intro and outro didn't disappoint. It sounded like a fever dream of crushed limbs and unnecessary surgery, like a watching an old David Cronenberg film with a beak full of ketamine. As the lights dimmed, Bailey's voice ominously repeated "This is a helldream. This is a helldream. This is a helldream."

Oh, I wish it was man. I wish it was. What it actually is is a series of fuzzed out guitar, bass and violin led sound pieces layered over with synths and tapping away on smashed up bits of pianos. It was decent post-rock stuff, kind of a sub Godspeed! You Black Emperor pastiche, but nowhere near as musically aggressive or experimental as I was hoping for. 

Perhaps most disappointingly, it wasn't even particularly loud. Sure, there were loud bits, but being handed earplugs gave me the masochistic hope that I was in for something that was going to leave a bruise. But the little cellophane packet remained resolutely unbroken and, despite assurances, I didn't even get to take home a tinnitus whine.

On top of that, the show ran into a major technical problem about mid-way through which took half an hour to fix and necessitated clearing the theatre. Part of the fun of these intense experimental pieces of music is losing yourself in the hallucinogenic lighting and music, sinking into a dreamy trance state and letting it wash over you. Having to retreat to a striplit theatre lobby to awkwardly stand about waiting for the show to get back on its feet is a straight-up atmosphere killer.

Also disappointing is that Kissing the Shotgun Goodnight isn't particularly theatrical. Sure, the triptych of musicians backed by 'piano corpses' is a striking image, especially when they're powerfully backlit through a haze, but everyone remains confined to their little area on stage throughout the night. It makes for a curiously static affair, with a huge unused space in the centre of the stage. If this were actually a concert it wouldn't be so bad as you'd be able to have a dance (well, a dazy sway), but being sat quiet and still, watching musicians posing in front of spotlights isn't the most dynamic experience.

Maybe if I hadn't have been to a tonne of actually ear-drum splitting bonkers 3am concerts I'd have reacted a bit more positively, but Bailey's show just made me fondly remember those other, better, gigs. Not quite theatre and not quite a concert, Kissing the Shotgun Goodnight ends up in some unhappy and awkward no-man's land.

I wanted Bailey to take a fucking hammer to my skull but sadly, it was not to be. Oh well. Better luck next time, eh?

★★

Kissing the Shotgun Goodnight is at the Ovalhouse until 11 October, then on tour. Tickets here.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

‘Godspeed You! Black Emperor’ at the HMV Forum, 5th November 2012

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - by londoncitynights · - 0 Comments

The gig began with a low bass hum.  An oscillating, throbbing sound coming from the huge speakers to the side of the stage.  The noise built and built. I could feel it shaking my innards around, gently bashing my brain around about inside my skull.  I glanced down at my drink in the hopes that it’d be making little Jurassic Park concentric ripples.  No such luck, but the way things were going they surely couldn’t be far off.  Soon, wordlessly Godspeed You! Black Emperor took to the stage, and kicked into the first of their five songs.  The gig was about 2 hours long.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor are pretty much the polar opposite of last week’s gig.  These songs are epic, ambitious and hypnotic.  It’s almost cliché to say that their music is apocalyptic, but it’s an accurate description.  This is music that feels portentous, the kind of thing to soundtrack a nuclear war.

They’ve recently put out their first album in 10 years, titled ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!’.  In keeping with the band’s slightly reclusive and eccentric image, it was released unannounced at the merchandise shop in a concert in Boston at the start of October.  It’s a suitably sinister, foreboding bit of work, only let down slightly by the inclusion of a song which has either bagpipes in it (or possibly bagpiping sounding strings).  I hate bagpipes in (nearly) all circumstances, but the rest of the album is good enough to allow me to get past it.  Fortunately, there were no bagpipes played during this gig, although I did keep an eagle eye on the stage for any sign of this vile instrument.

One thing that surprised me was that Godspeed You! Black Emperor actually slip into the straighforward rock n roll from time to time.  The dissonant strands of melody fuse together,and a driving, propulsive guitar riff suddenly dominates.  For brief and intense moments they're like a serious evolution of ‘Black Sabbath’ or ‘Hawkwind’.  It’s in these brief moments that the hypnotic trance the band weaves over the crowd is temporarily broken and we can nod our heads to a recognisable beat.  These sudden riffs feel like a note of triumphalism, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor is not that kind of band so they're necessarily fleeting.  Perhaps the highlight of the set is the aptly named ‘Behemoth’, which clocks in at about 45 minutes. It's almost painfully slowly put together, bombastic riff s evolving and melting into a delicate arrangement that’s so subtle some members of the audience begin to applaud thinking the song is over, to be shushed by those who know better.

By and large though, when Godspeed You! Black Emperor are playing, you’re going to be aware of it.  ‘Behemoth’ begins with a harsh drum snap, which at this volume is a very literal sonic weapon.  I was standing quite near the front, near the left hand amps and very quickly began to get a twinge of pain in my ear with every jagged beat.  I’ve been out to quite a few loud things lately, so I was genuinely worried about getting some semi-permanent hearing damage.  Eventually I decided to make some improvised earplugs out of a tissue in my pocket.  This made things a bit more bearable, but it bears repeating that Godspeed You! Black Emperor are a very, very loud band.  The success of their shows relies on sucking the audience into the sonic landscape they’ve created.  It's like they're aim is to give listeners a kind of sensory overload using these high volumes. 

This music has some odd effects, the audience are definitely some of the most placid I've encountered at a gig.  People just stand there glassy eyed, staring at the stage.  Some people sway their heads a bit, but generally the consensus seems to be for a kind of dead-eyed, vaguely cult-like absorption.  Occasionally goggle-eyed, pale skinned, sweaty people lurch out of the crowd, staring at you with saucer pupils.  I suppose if one was inclined to take recreational drugs and listen to music, Godspeed You! Black Emperor are an appropriate choice.  The slightly zombified nature of the audience begins to get to me after a while, and I find it very difficult to gauge the mood of the crowd.  Is everyone enjoying themselves?  It's impossible to say.

Adding to this general atmosphere of dissociation is that the band never say a word to the audience.  This depersonalises the experience and causes you to focus entirely on the music to the exclusion of any of the band members.  It’s a refreshingly egoless way to perform, and without knowing anything about the band its very difficult to tell who the leader or composer is.  On the other hand, it does mean that there is absolutely no rapport between the band and us.  The extent to which this band communicates is through the music and the visuals.

Throughout the gig, cut up super 8 film is projected behind the band.  The imagery is generally of run down semi-urban landscapes, views shot from cars, trains or helicopters.  The film looks damaged, and it’s unclear as to whether this is genuinely old found footage, or video that’s been very carefully computer processed to give it an effect.  In keeping with the anonymous, non-communicative nature of the band, the only human figures we see are either specks on an enormous landscape or people shot from far away seemingly unawares.  Whoever is directing this seems to take a special interest in these people, repeating the footage again and again, this gives these non-descript actions a kind of ritual quality.  At one point the film burns through over and over and over again.  In keeping with the literally destructive nature of this music it's entirely appropriate.

Later in the show the video takes on a slightly more narrative form, showing us footage from a stock exchange, followed by an anti-war protest.  This I thought was a little less effective than what was on before.  What I’d liked so far in the gig was the band’s near total refusal to tell us what conclusions to reach about what we’re seeing.  But here, by straying into the directly political it forces the audience to try and fit their abstract music into the framework of the world of finance.  Later, when the footage switches to the anti War in Iraq it feels a little bit old hat and I found myself wondering why we weren't looking at footage of Occupy instead.   I have no doubt that Godspeed You! Black Emperor have some quite interesting political and anti-corporate views, but as someone with only a passing familiarity with them I don’t think I can work them out from this footage.  It’s like they imagine just showing us the imagery is enough to make their point. 

 As immersive as the experience is, as the two hour mark approaches I’m a bit aurally and physically worn out.  The constant loud droning, coupled with standing rooted to the spot for so long takes it out of you a bit.  I wouldn’t exactly say I was bored, but at the same time I was anticipating the show being over.  As the final song gradually unravels itself into a buzz of discordant feedback the band leaves the stage.  The audience applauds, but the houselights stay down and the feedback continues.  I surprise myself by finding myself hoping that they don’t come back for an encore.  I think an encore in Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s case would entail at least another 15 minutes of standing around, by this point I had had my fill of their neverending sonic apocalypse.

I haven’t seen a band like this in a very long time.  Even though their songs are long, complicated and occasionally very discordant there is clearly a strict musical discipline at play.  More than most musicians they have the enviable skill of entrancing their audience.  They’re consciously intellectual, playing music that appeals to the head almost to the complete exclusion of the hips.  Godspeed You! Black Emperor bring a sense of ominous doom that few other bands could even dream of, and manage the task of making the abstract seem weirdly personal.  I hesitate to say I had ‘fun’ at this gig, but it was one hell of an experience.