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Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Electric Ballroom, Camden
ANARCHIST post-rock legends Godspeed do a great job of building a wall of sound at Camden’s old goth venue, the Electric Ballroom, although you’d expect nothing less.
Since forming almost 30 years ago in Montreal, Canada, the 10-piece collective have garnered a reputation for epic live sets of Swans-esque cacophony and crescendoing intensity.
Three electric guitars, two basses, two drummers and a violinist, coupled with samples of short-wave radio transmissions, are behind their unique sound.
On-stage, their trademark 16mm film projections are emblazoned at the back of the stage, displaying buildings, drones and political protests, among other things.
The first of three nights at the north London venue, which forms part of their world tour, sees the group smash out a two-hour set, giving as much airtime to their tunes of yesteryear as those from hypnotic new album G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END.
There’s approving gasps from the crowd when World Police and Friendly Fire, from their seminal 2000 breakthrough album Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven, is performed.
And most weren’t expecting them to play out with Blaise Bailey Finnegan III, aka BBF3, from their first EP Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada – a blast from the past.
It’s as comprehensive a set as any group whose tracks average around 15 minutes could perform while also giving nods to their latest album, which sees them return to using found sounds.
They play the outstanding Cliffs Gaze, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXti24jocqo, with its mesmerising riff, and Job’s Lament, which exemplifies their classic sound, building as it does to a freeform, trance-like state.
This segues nicely into First Of The Last Glaciers, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyxCHXlB908, as they do on their new album where the two tracks could be treated as one long journey, with the string section beautifully soaring over the chaos and feedback of the electric guitars.
If there’s anything to complain about it’s that the venue is too small and narrow to effectively accommodate all their avid fans. But the group nevertheless succeed in transporting us to outer space and back.
Until Friday September 23 2022; for tickets visit https://www.seetickets.com/tour/godspeed-you-black-emperor
