Battles – Live, Edinburgh Liquid Room, Thursday October 18th 2007
My friend Morgan has decided that he is going to make it his mission to take me to gigs I am not going to like. Frankly you lot should be sponsoring him because anything that breaks my whining indie kid tunnel vision is surely going to be a benefit to your reading experience here at Song, by Toad.
Having treated me to the glorious experience of an hour spent gazing at Regina Spektor’s wonderful breasts last year, this year he has even more treats in mind, commencing with the sonic assault that is Battles. I may be new to this lot, but I imagine most of you aren’t, given they’ve been talked about in a rather breathless fashion by an assortment of music press for some time now.
Seeing them live, it’s easy to see why. To begin with one of them wanders on stage and begins casually twiddling knobs until he’s set up a slightly reverby guitar loop. One by one the other member of the band join him and so it grows and grows. By the time all four of them are playing you get this wall of sound being generated that you have to simply let wash over you as you bask in the noise.
There is no such thing as lyrics, as they use the voice pretty much just as if it were any other instrument, but it nonetheless brings some welcome variation to the intense atmosphere they create. If there’s one thing this kind of noodling needs however, it’s a solid base, and Battles certainly have that. In amongst the driving guitars, echoing loops and random punching of the keyboard they are anchored by their superlative drummer John Stanier. He is formerly of Helmet apparently – although this means little to me – but his stamina is amazing though, and it is his amazing performance that really impressed me most about the evening.
I have no technical knowledge, so I am in no position to judge talent or any of that, but I’d say it’s worth going to see these lads just for him. By the end of the show, much as I’d enjoyed it, I was losing my fascination with their relentlesly swirling ambiences, but watching him drum like a fiend was something I was happy to do all evening.
This isn’t pop music, this is experimental performance art – almost sonic theatre. As such it doesn’t make for an easily assimilated listening experience for those of us, like myself, who have become so habituated to the four minute pop song with a catchy chorus, but there’s no doubt these lads are good. So I won’t be buying their records, I don’t think, but what a phenomenal gig!
Battles – Atlas
Battles – Tonto
Sounds like a great gig. Really like ‘Atlas’ think it’s up there with ‘D.A.N.C.E’ and ‘Adrenaline’ as one of my records of the year.
Jesus Ed, that was fast! This post has only been up for three minutes.
Yes, it was a great gig. And a bit of a break from the norm too, which I need from time to time. The internet can be a bit self-reinforcing at times, and I need to be forced out of my normal oeuvre occasionally.
Battles are great, particularly live. John Stanier’s ludicrously tall hi-hat is pretty funny to watch.
It is isn’t it – is that just to stop his back cramping up from all the intense drumming he does most of the time?
He’s said it’s actually less painful to hit it than at normal height due to having broken his shoulderblade a few years ago, but that’s also a possibility. They’re on the forthcoming series of Later With Jools, which I’d like to see just to judge the Fifty Pound Man demographic’s reaction.
After listening to the song “Atlas” alone I can’t believe you’ve got no interest in their records. I spent seven minutes thinking, “wow.”
It was a fucking amazing gig indeed. I hadn’t heard about these guys up to a week before a friend suggested going to this gig. I listened to their CD and wasn’t terribly impressed, but went along anyway, as I’m always up for a new experience, and I’m glad I did: although not a CD I’d buy and listen to at home, live they provide an impressive piece of “sonic theatre” as Mat justly named it. Being a drummer myself I could not help smiling at Stanier’s crazy high crash/cymbal and unbelievable stamina! WOW indeed!
dumbfounded that you haven’t heard of battles before, but quite glad you didn’t mouth off about them.
I had heard of them, just never quite got round to listening to their music. There’s so much out there, and my inbox gets so full, it can be difficult to keep on top of.
And I’m glad I didn’t mouth of about them, given you like them. I’ve offended your taste so much recently I am starting to feel quite guilty!
[...] who has declared a mission to take me to gigs I don’t want to go to – the man responsible for getting me to the Battles gig? Well you can see what he was up against when he suggested we go along to see the son of Malian [...]