Friday 28th May , HMV Forum, London
The Wounds were all lined up, Steven, Liles, Colin and Matt, throwing out a tasty dronic blend , bespeckled in skull lit circuitry; on screen, blood dropped through the wallpaper in lardy clumps as plummeting entrails slopped into a fruit bowl, a 70's living space going all abattoir. The orange lighting giving a greasy repugnant vibe to the eerie sensations purring out of the speakers.
A man pours petrol over a sleeping girl, drops the match, flames wrap round her, the music crackles, spurts, darts...
shrouded figures crawl dog like round the coffee table licked in flame... nonchalant occupants brush the flames away as if being annoyed by flies...
A gorgeous Simone type vox broke, supplied by a new face to NWW's live line-up Lynn Jackson... her wondrous voice poured out in decaying cycles that mixed well with the dancing mattresses on screen - made me think that recent Dirter vinyl re-shuffle may well be worth checking out...
Guitars cut in, insistent rhythms gelled and some beautiful, primi-faust-type flaying ensued - full of crazy petroleum sniffing angles and cobblestoned orientations, as furniture fell down cliff faces in balls of dust...... an appetiser for the beat-boxed, slap-bass Rock n Roll Station finale of the night's performance... Steve chopping out the vocals, whilst some husky trumpet gave out 'culling' growls and broken Miles D's... Matt Waldron rattling a toy skull before disappearing from the stage.
Earlier, after the merch scrum Simon Finn was putting his songs across like his fingernails were full of burning matches, howling the words out as his hand grated the guitar... backed by the distinctive vibes Joolie Wood brings, with Maja Elliot swapping grand piano for Korg keyboard... made for intense listening.
Sporting an oversized top hat, Sebastian Horsley introduced the headliners with biting remarks and cutting intentions; this guy was seriously funny... revealing he'd known David since they both met in hospital for torn rectums...
Current were remarkable... and I'm not just saying that from a besotted fan perspective... reworking the Aleph material into slow burning affairs... especially loved the live treatment of ...Because the Fox Barks... words were given different emphasis... unveiling new explorations... then exploding as Neilson blasted the skins... Black Ships getting a radical mutated disco makeover...
The new stuff mixed well , Tibet's vocals lulling you in whispered curls, then ripping into your head with bright violence shadowed by Sarah Dietrich's vox that brought out Rose McDowell comparisons, her arms unnecessarily wavy. Always love Tibby's talent for turning the ridiculous into cryptic, the way he feeds light n dark into his strings of words, gathering them around him like attentive children then feeding off the whites of their captivated eyes...
They did a bit of back catalogue wandering, with Michael Cashmore supplying the striped acoustics for Mary Waits in Silence, Tibet wiping away the tears on Whilst the Night Rejoices Profound and Still... and my personal favourite, In The Heart Of The Wood... never thought I'd hear him say swastika again - LOL... Fields of Rape was a bit predictable, but brilliantly rendered with Tibet's Coptic teacher getting in on the action... and Niemandswasser's medieval swirls made for a great sign off. Wish I'd been there for Saturday's Lucifer over London though...
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