Wednesday 8th December, The Croft
Yes, I admit it. I went to this gig because of the hype. In a way, I should have been warned by the description:
"The SUNN(0))) mission is to create trance like soundscapes with the ultimate low end/bottom frequencies intended to massage the listeners intenstines into a act of defecation. SUNN(0))) have gathered 2x for live performances, at which they have succesfully made audience members instantly nauseous, or better yet run for the toilet in terror."
I guess, even if I had listened to their music first I would still have gone, just to see if they could make ME run to the toilet in terror. So why did I go? To see if there was anything worth listening to in this 'drone' rock music. I am somewhat humbled by the fact that this was one of the dullest gigs I've ever been to, and there was probably some element of wanting to appear that it understand it too.
Geisha, with their usual wall of furious noise, fast metal, were plagued by sound problems, but they were their usual energetic selves and put me in a fine mood for music. I'm not sure what the laptop actually did, we couldn't tell over the noise...
Moss could easily be just one person, if you closed your eyes. Perhaps a child who can't decide whether they want to be a guitarist, drummer or singer - 'now I play a power chord and let it ring, now I hit a drum or a cymbal (see how daring?); now I scream; now a slightly different power chord; now the snare…' I think I understand what they're trying to do. Actually sod it, no I don't. The fact that they've divided the work between three extremely bored looking people made it even more dull. I couldn't pass comment on whether any of them are actually talented musicians or not, because they didn't really play anything of value. I'm informed that within their genre they are actually one of the good ones, but I'm not going to pretend it's worth the effort of understanding.
The main band, much-hyped famed for their volume, vibrations and ceremony, didn't disappoint. For about the first twenty minutes anyway, which was halfway through their first song! Let me try to explain what we saw. Moog and Mini-Moog keyboards. Two guitars. All played through enormous amplifiers, like Marshall JCM 800's. The start was promising, disparate slow guitar melodies intertwining, building up tension as the band enter (slowly) in druidic cowls. As the first loud chord hit us, this is really where the interest ends. For a while it held my attention, as the actual sounds are amazing, hearing a pure sustained power chord at that kind of volume is every guitarists dream. In fact, I think we all do it secretly at home anyway.
Sunn(o)))'s music is created through the resonances and harmonics formed by the two guitarists playing power chords (with Great Slowness and Ceremony) in unison, which becomes offset as one player changes his chord slightly and the resulting resonances from this soundclash hit you. This builds tension, which is then released as they come back together again. The Keyboards provide impossible bass, which is supposed to be the defecation bit I guess.
Like I said, this was interesting for about 20 minutes. After that, when the wonder was over I started itching for Something To Happen. I will not be going to see any more bands whose main promise is that they are boring! I'm not into 2-minute songs, but this is a bit much. Lesson learned.