Last night I went along to the Lemon Tree here in Aberdeen for one of the more random gigs I imagine I’ll see this year. Co-headliners Howlin’ Rain and Akron/Family, along with support band Phosphorescent, put on an interesting show and I certainly feel I’ve now had my dose of feedback, drum loops and percussive interludes for 2007.
Akron/Family Live by Freekorps
One man act Phosphorescent made good use of repeating loops over which he, complete with resplendent beard, sang some nice Conor Oberst-style folky songs about wolves and other creatures of the American wilds. It was a short set that concluded with his voice repeating and repeating until it ended in a screech of feedback and distorted wailing.
Howlin’ Rain then took to the stage, immediately launching into a frenetic set of fuzz-driven rock ‘n’ roll, delivered with great passion, energy and a lot of sweat. Sounding like a more crazed version of Free they had licks a-plenty, and very often the two guitarists combined for some brilliant duo-soloing, all of which got the crowd moving around a lot more. They had a couple of nice tunes, but a lot of their set, particularly the vocals, was lost in the general cacophony of their unruly performance.
After this things calmed down slightly with the three piece from Pennsylvania, Akron/Family, taking to the stage. With three nerdy-looking guys, two of whom were sporting hippy headbands, you weren’t expecting much noise, but throughout their extensive set, which lasted over an hour and a half, they produced some quite astonishing sounds. Each of them displayed much talent for multi-instrumentalism and they were very keen on getting, what was at first a somewhat muted crowd, involved. The set was expansive with one song moving into the next, often through transitionary jams that outlasted the songs themselves, and it wasn’t just guitar, bass and drums, but a plethora of different instruments; keyboards, percussion, and what appeared to be homemade electronics all played their part. After the laid back start, demonstrating their more typical folky musings, they soon cajoled the crowd onto their side with some entertaining band interplay and the fact that they appeared to be having a genuinely good time. The music was sometimes thrilling, and sometimes just threatened to punch a hole in your skull, but it was definitely never dull and the time raced by as you concentrated one minute on the intricate guitar play, and the next on the punchy drumming. The climax came as they moved into Ed Is A Portal, where various members of the audience got handed an instrument and pushed up onto the stage to join in the fun. I narrowly avoided having to execute a recorder solo… After this it was a genuine freak-out session with the band moving into overdrive, the whole crowd jumping and dancing around and culminated with a little light beat-boxing, just for good measure.
Not for a long time have I seen a band who have successfully brought the music to life outside the confines of their recordings, and even if it was little uncontrolled at times, they always seemed to find a way through, each time a beat emerging from chaos as surely as rain fell from the clouds during my walk home.
