Rock Action
Two days after seeing Mogwai, my ears are still ringing. That's how loud it was. It was particularly striking because you don't really expect it - unlike a band like, say, Cougars, whose music exists to be played at absurd volumes, Mogwai's music is soaring and atmospheric, with some more chaotic points, but I wasn't prepared for just how loud they would be. It was very impressive.
I arrived at the Melkweg fairly late, and missed most of the opener, Eugene Kelly. He was a solo singer-songwriter type, with an acoustic guitar and a heavy Scottish accent. I only caught two songs, but he seemed pretty good, with the description of a song about the time he took too much LSD and thought he was a horse being pretty amusing. For his last song, he proceeded to jump off stage and wander around the crowd, almost hitting me on the way down. I can't really say much about his set, but it seemed good from what I saw.
It took Mogwai a while to set up, considering all the fancy lights and the synth with "MOGWAI ... MR BEAST" written on it taking up lots of stage romm, not to mention all the pedals and miscellaneous effects equipment. Regardless, they finally got on stage to massive applause from the completely full floor of the Melkweg (it was one of the biggest and most applause-happy crowds I've seen in Holland) and broke right into "You Don't Know Jesus". I was immediately floored by the intensity of the show. Not only was it loud as hell, like I described above, but it was also incredibly intricate - if anything, more detailed than the album cuts. And let's not forget the lights - though I don't think that would be possible. Mogwai added at least 15 additional lights to Melkweg's already formidable setup, and constantly made crazy apperns and effects with the, in all sorts of insane colours. More on specifics later.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about the show was the way Mogwai worked their dynamics. Their songs tend to alternate beween hypnotically atmospheric numbers and crushing discordance. They fluidly segued between the two, giving the whole show an ebb-and-floe feel. Perhaps the most intense example of this came at what I'd call the climax of the show, when they seamlessly went from the mesmerizing end of "Mogwai Fear Satan" to Mr. Beast's most powerful track, "Glasgow Mega-Snake", at full, crushing volume and speed. That moment was one of the most intense in my showgoing career - be in a trancelike state from from the previous cut, and then being pummeled over the head with one of the loudest songs of a loud show was quite the jolt, and they took advantage of the situation by turning every light in the house on strobe in different colours! They did so for what felt like an eternity, and I swear the entire crowd had a collective epilectic seizure. It was insane.
The band rightly thought their music did enough talking - they said a total of two different sentences through the course of the show, those being "We're Mogwai from Glasgow" and "Thanks a lot". Touching on the first of those, they certainly seemed to want to make it clear they were Scottish: an amp and a guitar each had a Scottish flag, the bassist had an Arab Strap shirt with the same flag, and a Scottish crest on the drumset, so I think they got the point across.
The show really made me lose my sense of time - in a way, it was like an incredibly intense, focussed trip of a caliber I've never had with anything but music. Regardless, it seemed to go on for a long, long time, but then ended seemingly as soon as it got going. It was great regardless, and Mogwai have just replaced Godspeed You! Black Emperor as my favourite post-rock band. 10/10.
Setlist:
You DOn't Know Jesus
Friend of the Night
Travel Is Dangerous
Ithica 27-9
New Paths to Helicon Pt. 2
I Know You Are But What Am I?
Acid Food
Hunted by a Freak
Mogwai Fear Satan
Glasgow Mega-Snake
New Paths To Helicon Pt. 1
We're No Here
Encore:
2 Rights Make 1 Wrong
Folk Death 95
Shoddy Photos here.
I arrived at the Melkweg fairly late, and missed most of the opener, Eugene Kelly. He was a solo singer-songwriter type, with an acoustic guitar and a heavy Scottish accent. I only caught two songs, but he seemed pretty good, with the description of a song about the time he took too much LSD and thought he was a horse being pretty amusing. For his last song, he proceeded to jump off stage and wander around the crowd, almost hitting me on the way down. I can't really say much about his set, but it seemed good from what I saw.
It took Mogwai a while to set up, considering all the fancy lights and the synth with "MOGWAI ... MR BEAST" written on it taking up lots of stage romm, not to mention all the pedals and miscellaneous effects equipment. Regardless, they finally got on stage to massive applause from the completely full floor of the Melkweg (it was one of the biggest and most applause-happy crowds I've seen in Holland) and broke right into "You Don't Know Jesus". I was immediately floored by the intensity of the show. Not only was it loud as hell, like I described above, but it was also incredibly intricate - if anything, more detailed than the album cuts. And let's not forget the lights - though I don't think that would be possible. Mogwai added at least 15 additional lights to Melkweg's already formidable setup, and constantly made crazy apperns and effects with the, in all sorts of insane colours. More on specifics later.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about the show was the way Mogwai worked their dynamics. Their songs tend to alternate beween hypnotically atmospheric numbers and crushing discordance. They fluidly segued between the two, giving the whole show an ebb-and-floe feel. Perhaps the most intense example of this came at what I'd call the climax of the show, when they seamlessly went from the mesmerizing end of "Mogwai Fear Satan" to Mr. Beast's most powerful track, "Glasgow Mega-Snake", at full, crushing volume and speed. That moment was one of the most intense in my showgoing career - be in a trancelike state from from the previous cut, and then being pummeled over the head with one of the loudest songs of a loud show was quite the jolt, and they took advantage of the situation by turning every light in the house on strobe in different colours! They did so for what felt like an eternity, and I swear the entire crowd had a collective epilectic seizure. It was insane.
The band rightly thought their music did enough talking - they said a total of two different sentences through the course of the show, those being "We're Mogwai from Glasgow" and "Thanks a lot". Touching on the first of those, they certainly seemed to want to make it clear they were Scottish: an amp and a guitar each had a Scottish flag, the bassist had an Arab Strap shirt with the same flag, and a Scottish crest on the drumset, so I think they got the point across.
The show really made me lose my sense of time - in a way, it was like an incredibly intense, focussed trip of a caliber I've never had with anything but music. Regardless, it seemed to go on for a long, long time, but then ended seemingly as soon as it got going. It was great regardless, and Mogwai have just replaced Godspeed You! Black Emperor as my favourite post-rock band. 10/10.
Setlist:
You DOn't Know Jesus
Friend of the Night
Travel Is Dangerous
Ithica 27-9
New Paths to Helicon Pt. 2
I Know You Are But What Am I?
Acid Food
Hunted by a Freak
Mogwai Fear Satan
Glasgow Mega-Snake
New Paths To Helicon Pt. 1
We're No Here
Encore:
2 Rights Make 1 Wrong
Folk Death 95
Shoddy Photos here.
posted by Sasha at 5:20 PM
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