Just Listen To The Fucking Music!

I held little doubt, after seeing the poster reproduced below, that anyone who held as distinguished a predilection to psychedelia as I would converge to the Pony late Thursday night.

And so it was. A large and largely disreputable crowd was already packed into the modest club to witness the brash clamour of PBR Space Program. Playing only their second gig the Program impressed the crowd, judging from the attention and applause they received, to no small degree. Their method was to play long jams, broken intermittently - and ineffectively – with standard verse singing about whatever. Where the Program were really let down though was with their triple guitar attack. Why in the blazes would you need three electric guitars? I know that question was loaded with rhetoric but really, most of the time they were all playing the exact chords anyway. It’s an interesting paradox I guess, that by increasing guitar numbers you actually decrease the amount that can be done with any of them. In fact it was necessary for PBR, so as to produce any actual variation in their music, to have the solo parts played by a trumpet. Still it wasn’t an altogether bad set for a new band.

It was disappointing to see a large number of patrons leave after PBR’s set, evidently they were friends with the bandmembers, because they missed out on inventive musical journey courtesy of The Sun Blindness. The beat described this band as an ‘absorbing drone-folk duo’ which is probably a good description although I wouldn’t say they played anything like what I’d describe as drone-folk. -If anyone, by the way wants to actually start a drone-folk band then
count me in.- The Sun Blindness are also the winners of my now weekly prize –nb really only a metaphorical prize- for inspiring me take the most amount of notes during or directly ensuing a show. This prize is in response to readers of this site tiring of the scarcity of detail and the vague and confused manner in which I review the bands. Anyway the complete and unabridged notes I took that night were ‘first like airport 2’. This comprehensive document was supposed to remind me that their first song sort of sounded a bit like 2-1 off Brian Eno’s Ambient 1 – Music for Airports. If you have no idea what that is, don’t worry you’re in the absolute majority of people I know.

So they had two electric guitars and one of them spent the most part holding notes with one of those Electronic Bows you may have seen around. They’re these handheld devices that produce a magnetic field that vibrates the guitar string as opposed to plucking it. The other guy made random noise and played chords and –again disappointingly- did a bit of singing as well. It was interesting stuff, well worth a look, but not pulled off to the greatest effect possible.

Headlining the night’s performance was Blue Sunshine Mind -how awesome are all the band names- who played admirably. Before doing that however a large white sheet was draped from the roof, so obscuring the entire stage. You can imagine the shocked bemusement that ran through the –again swelled- crowd. It would be easy to label this an act of complete pretentiousness and I had decided to do so but the sheet was left up the entire set and not in emulation say of Sigur Ros and torn down after the first song to rapturous applause. So as the band played through their set the sheet defiantly stayed up. I say defiantly because the crowd, still alarmed at being denied the use of their most valuable sense, were baying for the screens immediate removal. These calls were delightfully answered between songs by an annoyed bandmember, ‘just listen to the fucking music’. Admirable advice and those who took it were treated to an outstanding display of musicianship. It seems that Blue Sunshine Mind were really just interested in getting their music across to people for the reason, that it really deserved listening to.

Their music is really hard to describe on paper –though probably only due to the fact I’ve forgotten what it was like. I’ve written, rewritten and ultimately deleted, several paragraphs trying to accurately describe it already. If you know the Melbourne band Laura then they’re a bit like them. If not then I’ll offer the beat's description of,‘trance-dancing’ but I’d say thats almost exactly what they’re not, though the music is a bit more danceable than other post rock bands. You know! Just check out their fucking MySpace page.

Unfortunately the reaction from the large part of the audience was not as would have been envisioned by the band. Rather than get lost in the psychedelic sounds –aided if need be by the strobostropic light effect being played across the screen, the crowd decided to resume talk amongst themselves. Though perhaps that was what the band really intended. Either way the experiment was terminated towards the end of the set when some audience members pulled the screen down to reveal the band as well as –seated in the back corner- the now redundant stroboscope operator who quickly left the stage after the song.

Right, this has been a long and I dare say tedious review so in quick summary; PBR Space Program are pretty ok, The Sun Blindness are well worth a look while Blue Sunshine Mind are a great -possibly pretentious- band.