After 6 hours of a mix of all sorts of music at the Woodhouse Liberal Club, a benefit gig for Love Music, Hate Racism, it's time for the next gig just down the road from where I used to live. Sonic Boom, aka Peter Kember of late 80s droners Spacemen 3 is in town, and as he does shows so very rarely these days, it seems stupid to miss it. Will it be any good, will it be rubbish, will he turn up, will he turn up and play, will he turn up and not play are just some of the questions racing through my mind as we enter the Brudey. As we take our seats having purchased possibly the friskiest pint of Kronenbourg ever, a quick head count sees about 50 in so far, most of these mesmerised by Elizabeth, who is Andy from That Fucking Tank and Kill Yourself, all on his lonesome. It's a simple set up, 1 man, 1 electric guitar, loops, more loops, more loops, pedals, samples, more loops, backwards echo, upside down rhythms and it's like watching a tripped out Ry Cooder. Ask your dad, I did.....Almost immediately, another act starts, and it looks to me like Random Number, with some double mac action, covering all electronica bases, which seems strange in the Brudey at 8:45pm on the Lord's day, rather than at 2am in a dance tent at a festival. Still pretty ace mind.......After this, we decide to do "spot Sonic Boom" to pass the time. Not as easy as you might think, as I've not personally seen a photo of him for about 15 years. Luckily, Richard Formby, fine producer and occasional collaborator is here, so we just look for likely candidates in his vicinity. Got him, there's a pale, gaunt bloke with drawn cheekbones and moccasins on his feet. That's him, he's here, ace! The punter count is now 60+.
Been wanting to see Quack Quack for a while now, but clashes of gigs haven't allowed. We're in luck tonight. For those of you who don't know, Quack Quack is Moz and Stu's beat combo, Moz and Stu being possibly the nicest soundmen in music ever™ and handily for us, they have roped in the best drummer in Leeds in my opinion ever™, Neil from Bilge Pump and other acts. Stu does bass in a JJ Burnel style, Moz does effected cheesy keys in a Wakeman style. Is it jazz, prog, prog jazz or jazz prog? Dunno, but I get the taste of Can, Krokus, and the odd whiff of Kraftwerk. Very very good indeed. 1 song even has some musical chair action, with Moz doing 2nd drumkit and keys, and Stu doing bass and keys - now that's magic! We even get the luxury of seeing an umbrella being used to play the bass in the last song. Hands up who wants to be the (currently non-existent) front man in this band? Me, sir, over here, sir, me!
Experimental Audio Research is basically Sonic and a lot of electronic bits and bobs onstage, with pleasing amounts of flashing LEDs, but no guitar, mic or autoharp. He's onstage and there's music in the background, but is he actually doing anything, or playing? Hard to tell. Then he steps off stage, people think the gig is all over as somebody shouts "get on with it". A minute later he reappears, says "Good evening, thanks for coming" and so the drone begins. Oscillations, loops and feedback are built up, mixed in faded out and generally fucked about with. Expect nothing as straight forward as songs in this set. Also, and this has to be reported, expect a fuck load of talking while this is taking place. Why? Why bother coming to the gig? How often does this bloke play in Leeds, or anywhere, every week? Can people afford not to listen and try and work out what he's doing? Maybe by accident, maybe not, but as the talking level goes up, so does the output of sound bending from the PA. In this set, there seems to be about 6 or 7 distinct pieces, but a million and a half ideas at the same time. Is this pioneering audio research? Probably not, but some bits are great and for 45 minutes, it's definitely what you'd call experimental.
Gig Date: Saturday, 18th March 2006 | 435 page views.
