bl!
bright light ! gigs

mogwai @ whelan's, dublin 24/01/1998


set list

  • summer
  • like herod
  • angels vs aliens
  • xmas steps ['new' or 'cunt' as it was then known...]
  • ex-cowboy
  • katrien
  • helicon 1
  • helicon 2
  • stereo dee

    support from wormhole


    reviews

    from tom:

    mogwai eventually played in dublin and it was very very kool, especially the version of stereo dee they did to finish... it certainly shut the talkers up. they only did it cos the bass amp was broken and buzzy, so they wouldn't have been able to do justice to mogwai fear satan, which is what appears on the setlist.

    from damien:

    whelan's is a nice, small dublin venue. it's split between two levels, the normal ground floor (with bar at the back) and a balcony. the ground floor holds about 350 i'd say, possibly a bit more. the stage is about 3/4 feet off the ground. perfect place to see the gwai, so.

    it seems mogwai had a bit of trouble getting over, as they only arrived at the venue a short while before doors were due to open. i overheard snippets of a drugs story - must have been the problem at the border. anyway, luckily only myself and my friend were waiting outside so there wasn't too much of a problem. they unloaded and set up quite quickly, soundchecked with 'summer' and that was that. doors opened about an hour late still, and we secured places at the front.

    the wormholes soon hit the stage, having discarded their previous slack-rock tendencies for a more krautrock-influenced approach. they played a one song, half hour set, the bassist and drummer keeping a steady slightly groovy & dubby rythym, with the guitarist eventually going crazy and fucking some sounds up with manipulations of his guitar neck and a primitive delay device; cool.

    soon after, mogwai strolled nonchalantly onstage, john being the neat one, dominic the skate one, martin the band t-shirt wearing one, and stuart the crazy one : safety pinned tracksuit bottoms and a cardigan any belle and seb fan would be proud of. these were the impressions my first real live sight of mogwai on stage left me with.

    summer came first, attempting (in vain, it must be said), to let the chattering hordes know that there was, in fact, a band on stage. afterwards stuart asked the crowd politely to keep it down a bit, as the bass notes to herod brought coy smiles onto the faces of myself and my surrounding gig goers : we knew what was coming. you know what comes next : almost tribal unison pedal stomping and ear shattering noise : lovely. two people behind me attempted to mosh. why is it always me who gets these idiots in the back?

    angels vs aliens was v. nice, providing the only vocals in the set and stuart getting down on his knees at the end to play a pre-positioned snare on the floor. afterwards i got one of the sticks he was using, and it was wrecked!

    a new songs greeted us next, it turned out to be christmas steps. the bit (you know *the bit* - drums come in, guitars go 'ching' and 'chang') still remains the most shocking moment of my gig going career. this was followed by another newbie - ex-cowboy.

    katrien was remarkable for martin's drumming, but it became more and more clear that the boys were not happy. there was constant talking from the crowd, and i think they were having some problems with their gear. stuart took the bass and sat on the floor for helicon 1 and that and its counterpart were both, as expected, brilliant. mogwai fear satan was down as the last song on the setlist, but it seems they wanted to make a bit more noise (and i discovered from martin over a year later, they were also having problems with the bass amp), so they launched into stereodee instead. this i was not expecting, as i had some doubts that they could recreate the cacophany of sound onstage. i was wrong. blistering, perfect destruction. despite the aural terrorism of all the guitars at this point, i think the most incredible feat in this part of the set is performed by martin on the drums, as i'm sure most of you who have seen it will agree. they all left the stage seperately, and despite a few calls for an encore, didn't return.

    afterwards martin's mam started talking to me, and thankfully martin soon arrived to save me. he was soon harassed by a young drunkard who argued ferociously that they haven't got enough time changes (doesn't he have *ears*?). it was clear that the time to exit had arrived, so we did.

    mogwai: kings among men