Having seen Godspeed You! Black Emperor twice recently, I wasn’t as excited to see this show as I would have been otherwise, but when a band of this quality is in town, I’ll clear space on my calendar to go see them. In this case, it meant finding someone to cover my overnight shift at work. As I headed up Highway 280 into the city, I reflected that too much touring isn’t always a good thing. Sure, it keeps the band fresh in the minds of the local fan base, but eventually there will be a certain amount of audience attrition. Perhaps this is why the band only played two sold out shows at the Great American this year, as opposed to the four they played last time through. Still, two sold out shows is nothing to sneer at.
The San Francisco fog, notably missing on the night we saw Murder By Death recently (see previous post), was back, blanketing the tip of the peninsula in a comfortable, clammy shroud. I snapped up one of the only remaining parking spaces along Van Ness and got to the venue about halfway between the time when the doors opened and when Total Life was slated to start. For once, I got into position near the stage. My reasoning was that last time I’d seen Godspeed, we had been near the back, so in order to make this experience different, I needed to alter my vantage point. There was a distinct smell of garlic in the air, no doubt from something the kitchen was serving up, and it was making me hungry. I resisted though. The garlic smell would later slowly transform itself into a marijuana smell as audience members lit up.
Total Life (aka Kevin Doria of Growing), who opened for Godspeed back in 2012 too, got started late, and delivered a relatively brief drone set, doing nothing to change my opinion of his music. As drones go, his are cold and clinical, lacking the warmth of others in the genre (Andrew Chalk, for example). Sometimes, the “whup whup whup” sounds reminded me of helicopters, enforcing the impression of machines. Visually, there wasn’t anything to look at beyond Doria hunched over a table full of gadgets with rotating knobs, so I closed my eyes and discovered that the music was more effective in darkness. That said, his set played like an extended intro to the main event, which I guess is the function of an opening artist anyway.
There was a big chunk of time between Doria finishing and Godspeed arriving on stage, which was strange because all Doria had to do to clear the stage was drag his table off into the wings. This minor irritation was quickly forgotten when the band finally arrived and things got started.
The three guitarists played seated, and the two bassists played standing. Partially hidden behind the equipment, two drummers lurked. Violinist Sophie Trudeau was standing stage left next to bassist Theirry Amar. Amar switched off between contra bass and electric bass during the set.
The films projected behind the band were pretty much the same as last year, giving the impression that the band is simply resting on its laurels. Towards the end of the set, the films got more abstract though, and might have been different. In addition to the burning effects from before (frames swelling and collapsing as if being subjected to heat), bits of film gave the impression of the reel becoming divorced from the projector. It was as if the mechanism was breaking down. Focus was lost, as was any other real coherence. It meshed well with the band’s aesthetic. In some ways, the films do the job of a vocalist, providing a narrative feel to the songs. The band utilizes snippets of speech to the same end, most notably during this set the aged man reminiscing about the Coney Island of yore at the beginning of the beautiful, melancholy Monheim.
I didn’t pay as much attention to the projections this time around though, because the band was right in front of me. I watched metal rods vibrating across strings to make Godspeed’s distinctive guitar sound. I watched Amar bowing his electric bass. I watched guitarist David Bryant switch back and forth between guitar and an impressive rack of effects. During the beginning of Mladic (from last year’s “Allelujah! Don’t Bend Ascend”), he briefly hammered on a dulcimer, which to me sounded like the clanging of bells at a railroad crossing. Perhaps it was the projected images of trains and tunnels that inspired this mental connection. I watched guitarist Efrim Menuck keeping time with his whole body as the music gripped him. I listened to the sound surge and build as climaxes came and went and I found myself enraptured for the duration. The band definitely hasn’t worn out its welcome yet!
At the beginning of the set, I had to strain to hear the violin properly, but this was soon remedied. Other than that, everything sounded great.
The last song was an absolute monster, appropriately entitled Behemoth. Upon poking around on Setlist.fm, I notice that the song debuted during the latter half of 2012, so it’s a relatively new one. It starts with a slow, hypnotic beat which is soon enveloped by lurching post-rock guitar. After the fact, I was surprised to learn that the song clocks in at over 40 minutes. It held my attention so well that it seemed much shorter.
As with the band’s last visit, recordings of their Great American sets are available online at Archive.org. Here’s the one I went to, and here’s the one they played the night before. They both sound great. I’ve mentioned before that the availability of the sets on Archive.org sort of render a written review moot, but I’m writing one anyway, aren’t I?
Here’s the set list. Five songs in nearly two hours.
They didn’t perform an encore.
Also of interest to fans is this, a sampling of the humble beginnings of the good ship Godspeed. Holy grail, Batman! Check out the back story here.
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