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Faced with a two-hour set of intense music, you find yourself lost inside your own mind, entering a meditative state to reflect on everything you have ever known. Emerging on the other side, you ask yourself: Was that the most spiritual gig you've ever attended?
Opening tonight is Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji, armed with an acoustic guitar and an array of pedals. His roughly 35-minute set is built around three distinct pieces of music. The first two focus on his guitar, using it along with effects to build intense soundscapes. The guitar sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before, resembling more of a distorted idea of an acoustic guitar under tension. These sounds layer on top of each other, creating dizzying pieces to get lost in. The vast space of the venue is filled with this off-kilter sound. The final piece is created entirely with pedals, taking the initial sound and distorting it to the extreme. Tashi Dorji abandons any traditional image of a live gig, putting aside the guitar and crouching on the floor, manipulating pedals. The sounds grow stranger and more unfamiliar until, lost in the sound, the short set comes to an end. Your mind is clear, and you are ready for Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor having no vocals works in their favour massively for tonight. Two band members appear on stage and start their instruments. This gradual start to the headline set eases you in letting you know what each part of the band will be offering while you can still tell them apart. Each member walks on stage directly to their instruments and starts playing gradually building the sound. They are hypnotic, drawing you in with everything they do. The visuals behind the band are almost as iconic as their live sound, being a mixture of archival footage and with some level of effects added to them. Being based on actual film rather than digital media it creates this organic compliment to the music. The film grounds you somewhere in a distorted reality and the music lets you explore that further.
The band keeps on playing their music, most songs taking a similar approach of a calmer start. You can always tell at the start of songs the instruments being played. Yet as the song builds and builds everything blends into this giant tsunami of sound. Nothing stands out, it’s a singular beautiful sound. The music when it builds hits like nothing else. Everything else in your mind leaves. The music pushes itself onto you, uncompromising in everything it does. You are forced into submission the band has control over you. Each song comes at you gradually due to the calmer starts. No talking in between songs the next just eases you in until again you're trapped inside it. The band guides you to every emotion, the crowd reflecting this with people doing everything from head banging to crying. Having 8 members on stage could feel bloated but every instrument earns their place in the sound. Moments with two bass players make sense when you hear just how powerful they are. The band works as one for the music.
The band say nothing when on stage they aren’t given microphones for vocals. The only level of communication given by the band till the end of the set is political messages on their amps. These speak louder than any passing comment ever could. When you aren’t lost in the music or get a quick break from being hypnotised you are faced with the band’s politics. Every choice they make is powerful. When the band leaves the stage, they leave one at a time. Each member gives a little nod or thumbs up to the audience. At any other concert this would be seen as nothing but after the 2 hours of being lost in the music everyone in the crowd thanks them for their contribution. Each member of the band is given love by the audience for guiding them tonight.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor are in a very rare group of bands that you need to see live. Not because they have a giant impressive stage show or insane moshing, but they take you places that nothing but music can. They stir something in your soul. Go and see them if you have the chance, you’ll leave the gig feeling you have just had a detox of the soul. Beautiful, hypnotic and transformative.
Words: Will Freeman
Cover: Heather Patterson
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