bl!
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mogwai @ lemon tree, aberdeen, scotland |
26/08/1998 |
mogwai fear satan
rollerball
kappa
helicon 1
xmas steps
like herod
support from the yummy fur
review, by neil j. comfort |
i'd been listening to 'young team' nonstop since i first found it in
february, and i'd just gotten hold of 'ten rapid' a couple of months ago, so
when my friend told me mogwai were coming all the way up to aberdeen i
couldn't believe it. the most exciting band in britain - only 50 miles from
my hometown! anyway, we packed into the lemon tree, which was a shockingly
small place, and watched the yummy fur with excitement and amusement in equal
measures (john's girly mid-song jumps have to be seen to be believed, but
ultimately a rockin' set, even without a bass player).
when mogwai came on and started playing my favourite 'song' in the
world i was in heaven. it started off as a hazy wall of drifting sound before
martin's furious drumming kicked it into gear. but what was this over barry's
beautiful flute playing? chatter from the crowd. i couldn't understand why
these people could fail to be transfixed by the awesome tune in front of
them. still, the pace picked up as the guitars crashed in, and it ended with
stuart beating the hell out of a drum - life-affirming.
rollerball came next, with stuart resting on an amp and tickling a
bass to beautiful effect, but something was wrong with the atmos. before
'kappa', stu got to the microphone, and made a heartfelt plea for a bit of
quiet. then he dropped his guitar. sadly, this seemed to be the highlight of
the evening for half the audience. and yet the worse the talking got, the
more determined mogwai were to make the most awe-inspiring music ever. when
dominic jumped on the distortion pedal in 'helicon 1' i swear i could see the
heavens opening above me; a pure sonic orgasm had just taken place, and half
of aberdeen remained unaroused.
by now mogwai had realised they had to fight fire with fire, and so
the last two tunes made a point of being pretty quiet, then
superbastardbloody loud! loud! loud! i fondly remember the moment in 'like
herod' when stuart looked out at the crowd, disgusted with their
indifference, before blasting the hell out of his amps and setting to his
fretboard with a pint of irn bru. as they left the stage in a gale of
feedback there were a few cheers, but far louder was the silence from my side
of the stage. at last, mogwai had got aberdeen to shut the f--- up.
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