i'm not fond of going to gigs on my own - there's nothing like surrounding yourself with happy socialising strangers to make you feel like a loser. however, desperate times call for desperate measures, and i knew that if i didn't go i'd regret it for ooh at least 3 weeks.
thankfully, this double made the hanging around trying not to look obviously alone well worth it. i was expecting fuck buttons to be a little more visceral in person, more immersive, more rock action - but then the playhouse was pretty empty when they came on and they did a good job of trying to fill out the space. they basically played the album, and while i found my attention wondering a little mid-set, by the end i had a big grin on my face.
i've seen mogwai about 9 or 10 times now - the first was at norwich arts centre 1997, supported by
navigator; the last was at the royal albert hall in 2006. and while the stages and light shows may have got bigger, the basic experience has not. as they might say, it's tremendous. basically you know pretty much what you're going to get with a mogwai gig - lots of delicacy, melody, space, quiet and then pulverising white noise. and, as they did last night, if you're lucky they'll play 'hunted by a freak', 'xmas steps', 'helicon 2' and 'like herod'.
i'm adding 'batcat' to that list - it was deliciously punishing and gets extra points for stopping on a dime. some of the other new stuff dragged a little, but only relative to the bliss of the set peaks. just one encore, a fairly perfunctory 'glasgow mega snake' and it's all over for another year or 2.
one gripe: why oh why do people feel the need to yell out mid-song? kids (and it was a pretty young crowd on the whole), i paid to hear the band not you so please, get fucked.
::: mogwai - star wars (from "rock action presents vol 1")
::: mogwai - like herod (from "government commissions")
::: fuck buttons - bright tomorrow (from "street horrrsing")
i'm in the math club.
this new primer covers what you could call the "post-slint" side of post-rock; these are bands that tend to start quiet then get really loud then get quiet again. they tend to be on very good terms with their distortion pedals. they tend not to involve singers. they are frequently exhileratingly predictable (i went through a phase of being "off mogwai" because it always feels like you know what's coming next, until i realised i wanted to hear it anyway). they tend to have very muscular bass sounds.
