Thantifaxath's Sacred White Noise

In the court of Thantifaxath.

And a dark, chilling, ominous court it is.  Fringed with candles and animal skeletons, a stone floor, deep recesses cut into the stone and blood stains abound, there have been many incantations spoken in this court.  A wooden door clad in metal hinges leading to a staircase winding down into a chamber is the only exit.  No shafts of sunlight grace this court.

Every so often three figures in black hoods, whose faces we cannot see and whose identities remain anonymous, enter the court through the great wooden door clad in iron, light the candles on the fringe, and play beautiful, foul, dissonant, claustrophobic black metal.  But not before they take a light hit of psychedelic drugs.  

Sweeping anthems and mesmerizing chords engulf the court and resonate throughout the halls as the three men in hoods play purposeful, calculated, piercingly ornate music that summons dark spirits and then entrances them.

The music is thematic and blistering, atmospheric, shrill, harmonically disconcerting.  It's black metal with the weight of doom.  There's a great weight to this music.  The three mysterious musicians surely feel the weight of the music they play, and they must feel anguish.  Tremelo picked harmonies drone on and on.  Sometimes the light is bright in the darkness.  Sometimes darkness and light blend together. 

    



When the anthems end and the chords echoing off the walls die down, and fade away, the spirits sober and retreat back into the crevices in stone from whence they came.  For a while there is a gasping in the darkness.  And then even the sound of the gasping disappears. 

And once again the court is silent and still.  

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Concert Review

Godspeed You! Black Emperor on Thursday, October 4, 2012 at Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC


After listening to F# A# Infinity on vinyl and looking over some faulty schematics to a ruined machine at my cousin's apartment I was in a GY!BE mood. We ate at a pub across the street from Cat's Cradle at the same time the band did. Efrim, Sophie and co. walked in while we were having a nice talk about measuring the worth of science. They ate at a booth adjacent to us and out of eyesight though, and we didn't bother them on the way out.

I bought the 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! LP as soon as we walked in the venue, as the merch guy told us it was probable they'd sell out before the show finished. Other merch they had included 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! and "God's pee" t-shirts. I talked to some UNC kids, met up with some friends, sat through a monotonous opening band's set, then hung out for about thirty more minutes (at least, probably more like forty-five) while Godspeed set up, and then Hope Drone started and one by one the members came out on stage.

"Hope" started flashing on the projection screen in scratchy font, like it always does.  

My good friend standing beside me said, "it's an Obama ad.""Hope" flashing was followed by images of trains, dead bodies, decayed buildings, etc.  


Lineup in attendance:

David Bryant
Efrim Menuck
Mike Moya
Sophie Trudeau
Thierry Amar
Mauro Pezzente
Aidan Girt
Tim Herzog (of NC's Black Skies)


Setlist:

1. Hope Drone
2. Mladic
3. "Murray Ostril" ...They Don't Sleep Anymore on the Beach
4. Monheim
[a shit ton of new stuff I didn't recognize and long drone interludes, some of which easily could have been "Their Helicopters' Sing" and "Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable"]
8. The Sad Mafioso


There were at least three songs in between Monheim and The Sad Mafioso, none of which were on any of their albums, along with a ton of drone material. They're calling one song "Behemoth" on setlist.fm but I don't even know what that is so I'm not putting it in this set. They played for about two and a half hours.

A lot of that new stuff, according to my cousin who's a music guru, was atonal and used eastern scales (which I could never pick up by ear). There was one song in between all the droning that was really good - it seemed like a typical Godspeed song that built up over fifteen or so minutes and reached a massive climax. Of course when the Murray Ostril recording came on, and when Efrim played the opening notes to A Sad Mafioso, the crowd went wild. Cat's Cradle was sold out. Godspeed has become more popular probably than they ever wanted to be.

After the show Efrim was outside the venue talking to some folks and my cousin and I went and asked him what kind of literature he was inspired by. The only answer we got was "The Savage Detectives" by Roberto Bolano.

Slow moving trains and blueprints of drilling rigs

 

Rush Concert Review

Rush "Time Machine Tour" concert on Saturday, April 2, 2011 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC

There were three negatives going in.  One, I knew I had to be a ticket scalper since one of the guys I bought a ticket for backed out on me a few weeks ago.  I told him I'd try to sell his ticket at the door, but if I couldn't, he'd owe me the price of the ticket.  Two, since this show was inexplicably rescheduled from Friday, April 1 to Saturday, April 2 sometime earlier this week, it meant missing the Final Four.  Three, I knew what they were going to play before I ever even entered the coliseum. I don't think the set list has changed once since the start of the first leg.   

Rush Setlist:

1. The Spirit Of Radio 

2. Time Stand Still 

3. Presto 

4. Stick It Out 

5. Workin' Them Angels 

6. Leave That Thing Alone 

7. Faithless 

8. BU2B 

9. Freewill 

10. Marathon 

11. Subdivisions 

- - - Intermission - - -

12. Tom Sawyer 

13. Red Barchetta 

14. YYZ 

15. Limelight 

16. The Camera Eye 

17. Witch Hunt 

18. Vital Signs 

19. Caravan 

20. *Drum Solo* 

21. Closer To The Heart 

22. 2112 (Part I: Overture & Part II: The Temple of Syrinx)

23. Far Cry 

Encore:

24. La Villa Strangiato 

25. Working Man 




Three men on a stage have never produced such a sound.  It was the best classic electric rock vibe I've ever heard live.  These guys can PLAY.  Peart delivered an awesome drum solo, as I expected him to, complete with a rotating "time machine" drum kit.  This concert went on and on and on and on and on, it clocked out after at least three hours.  After Subdivisions, Geddy said "were old men… we need a break."  A twenty-minute intermission ensued.


Rush has experimented with different sounds throughout their career, and the purpose of this tour, as presented in the title of the tour, was to take the audience through the decades to experience their prowess and amazing repertoire.  Many think of Rush as a very serious band that's all music and no play, others as some type of alternative heavy metal; but they are neither.  They are a fun-loving progressive rock band, and they smiled often and danced around on stage simply having fun while displaying amazing musicianship.  The first set had some great stuff, including one of my favorites, "Leave That Thing Alone," an instrumental with some really catchy guitar work.  "The Spirit of Radio," "Time Stand Still," "Freewill," "Marathon," and "Subdivisions" are all great songs.  There was a large screen behind the stage they played films on.  Often it was a clock counting down to a particular year - usually signifying the year of a particular song release of the song getting ready to be played, or in one case, an album release.  During the intermission, the clock counted up to 1980, the year Moving Pictures was released.  At the start of the second set, "Tom Sawyer" came on and they played Moving Pictures in full.


They also played some material from their upcoming release, Clockwork Angels, notably, "BU2B," and "Caravan."


They only played the first two parts to 2112.  I would've loved to see the whole thing played.  But it is a twenty-minute song… and they played for over three hours as it was… I guess these old men can only do so much.  


But for old men, they still rock pretty hard.  

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Concert Review

Godspeed You! Black Emperor concert on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA



I made plans some time ago to go see this one with one of my cousins, which is incredibly appropriate since he's the one responsible for introducing me to the post-rock genre a few years ago, and in particular, introducing me to Godspeed You! Black Emperor.  There's not another soul I know (personally) whose musical tastes, and whose reasons for listening to music, are so similar and so compatible with mine.  With that said, this was an incredibly highly anticipated event for me.  When GY!BE announced the tour back in September I could hardly believe it.  But at the same time I figured it would happen eventually, considering the greatness of the project.  It comes as no surprise that this band has sold out nearly every venue it's been hosted by, including Athens, GA.             

I had to do some research before this show, which has been an ongoing thing for a few weeks now, not because I was unfamiliar with the band's music, but because I'm still not completely familiar with all the subnames of the songs.  I'm only real familiar with the full names of the tracks (i.e.: " Sleep," Static," "Providence," etc etc).  I know a few subnames of particular portions of tracks I like, but not all of them.

First of all, it should be known that I had to sacrifice a day of school to attend this show, which meant rescheduling an exam.  Since it was roughly a 5-hour drive from northwestern NC to Athens, and the show ended at 1:00am, it put me back around 6:00am, on a day of two exams (on top of the one I had to reschedule).  As far as school goes, the timing could't have been worse.  But it was the chance I took when I ordered these tickets before the start of the semester, and the bad timing didn't come as a surprise.  Nevertheless, nothing was stopping me from going to this show.     

Athens is a real neat town.  It reminded me a lot of Asheville or Wilmington in that it's maintained an element of natural beauty despite being metropolitan.  Plus, it just has that hipster vibe to it.  This show was right in downtown.  Upon arrival, I wasn't surprised Godspeed You! Black Emperor chose it as their one destination of the South.    

After eating at a local pizza restaurant, we walked down to the venue and got in line outside and stood there, waiting, for at least an hour.  Everyone was really friendly.  Two dudes inside the venue told us they'd driven 14 hours from Texas.  I thought "holy shit… I thought I was a hardcore Godspeed fan…" I wouldn't be surprised if the band is anti-South.  We should probably consider ourselves lucky they managed one date as far south as Georgia.

I was surprised they had merch for sale.  I figured the band was anti-merch as well.  I remember reading somewhere their philosophy was "make your own Godspeed You! Black Emperor t-shirt."  They're so anti-capitalism and consumerism.  I'll bet Constellation forced them to sell some stuff.  They had two t-shirts for sale at $20 each, all their albums, and a beautiful glossy silkscreen poster for $20.  I went with the poster.  (See picture below)

As far as standing position in front of the stage, we were pretty close to the front.  There might've been two rows of people in front of us?  The most irritating part of the night was crowd chatter during the opening act.  The opener was an individual artist who played multiple guitars.  He was actually really impressive and technically proficient.  His playing reminded me of Trace Bundy (except he probably wasn't quite that good), with more wailing and capo switches.  He was extremely kind and gracious considering the rudeness from his audience.    

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Setlist:

1. Hope Drone

2. Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

3. Gathering Storm

4. "Murray Ostril"  ...They Don't Sleep Anymore on the Beach

5. Monheim

6. 9-15-00 (outro) / The Albanian

7. Atomic Clock

8. Chart #3

9. World Police and Friendly Fire

10. Slow Moving Trains

11. The Cowboy

12. Moya

13. Blaise Bailey Finnegan III

14. String Loop Manufactured During Downpour… [Outro]

The only one I'm not positive about is the outro to 9-15-00 played after Monheim.  They played a lot of interludes in-between songs, a lot of which were hard to decipher, and they ran together.  They definitely played something between Monheim and Atomic clock.  It might have been a snippet of The Albanian, a track I'm fairly unfamiliar with, but I'm not confident.  They might have mixed 9-15-00 and The Albanian together (which I feel was probably the case, but again, not sure).  One thing became apparent after seeing this band live, and my cousin commented on it as well.  Just like A Silver Mt. Zion, this band is incredibly influenced by free jazz.  A lot of their interludes were very chaotic and uncoerced, much like in free jazz.  I think the chaotic aspect of their music is probably symbolic to their anarchistic tendencies.  A lot of their songs disintegrate from something beautiful into something chaotic and tumultuous.  They did this even more so live.  Blaise Bailey Finnegan III, at around the 14:00 or 15:00 minute mark, went into something highly varied from what it sounded like on Slow Riot.  The intro, Hope Drone, is another example, as is virtually all the interludes that consisted of tons of feedback and reverb.    

I've come to realize nearly everything this band does is done to convey a message.  Whether it's the monologues or voice tracks (and the music that encompasses them), the song titles, the sound that's meant to evoke a particular emotion, the artwork… nothing is inconsequential.  The film loops are no exception.  The films played during the set were fantastic.  Nicely contrasted.  My favorites were the ones, I think played during Moya, that consisted of ancient script-type writing, and even occultist symbols.  Some also looked to be Hebrew.  Others included typed texts from war documents.  They flashed so quickly I could't make out what they said, for the ones in English that is.  I only saw single words as I focused in, and that was enough to let me know they were documents regarding wars or foreign policy of some type (very fitting for BBF3).  

I also liked how the band did absolutely no talking during the show.  One track ran into another.  It was like one long 2 1/2 hour cohesive piece of music, woven together.

As I expected, they sounded amazing.  Monheim and Moya, in my opinion, were the best played tracks of the night.  My cousin liked what they did with BBF3.  I honestly couldn't have asked for a better setlist.  I'm not sure there's a single "bad" part to any Godspeed song.  It's just some are better than others, and they played a lot of good ones last night.  Not to boast, but I think Athens might've gotten the best setlist of the tour so far.  The only song missing that would've been amazing to hear, that they've played at a few previous shows (DC for sure), is The Sad Mafioso.  But the set ran well over two hours as is.  It was very strategic for them to put on that recording of String Loop Manufactured During Downpour as an outro.  It prevented the audience from being able to ask for an encore.  They slowly left the stage one by one, waving to the audience as they went, while we listened to "where are you going?" over and over along with the droning of distorted guitars.  It was awesome.    

Just to critique though, there were some variances I wasn't crazy about.  One of them was Efrim's slight switching of the notes played during Chart #3.  Recall the notes of the gentle atmospheric strumming of the guitar while we listen to that insane man describe his dream about passing through corridors and dark serpentines and penetrating to the most high god.  Yeah, Efrim didn't play those notes as they were on the album.  Also, there was no trumpet or French horn in Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven.  That one's pretty picky, but it's something I noticed; I'm sure there's nothing they could have done about it.  I don't think any of them even play horns.  Also, during the same track (Lift Yr. Skinny Fists), maybe it was just me, but the drum beat seemed a little different.                    

During World Police and Friendly Fire

During Moya

the 40 Watt Club  

My beautiful, glossy, silkscreen tour poster

Simply put, I've never been to a show like this before.  It was absolutely fantastic.  If I didn't have school, I'd travel long distances to see it again.  The show is unique because the band is unique.  There is no other band that even comes close to being similar to Godspeed You! Black Emperor.  Now that I've seen them in concert, I can spend my days yearning for a new album.