Jack Rose, Chris Corsano, D Yellow Swans live @ The Luminaire 9th Feb
My quest for decent new music led me to an enjoyable gig at The Luminaire in Kilburn.
I was accompanied by a guitar player called Antony and Camilla’s brother Jacob from Copenhagen who had surprised me earlier in the day by telling me he was in London. Like me, he had this terrible flu thing which just never ends, no matter what cough syrup you take.
I had been looking forward to opening band D Yellow Swans (one review here) from San Francisco and had remembered one word from some blurb I had read about them: “metal”. I had obviously wired this thought up with my newfound love for the band Lightning Bolt, and thus expected something similar from DYS. That’ll teach me. These guys play noise, a thick spread of noise. On one track there was a kind of techno beat, which didn’t help at all. One was playing guitar and the other was twiddling knobs and singing, but the guitar and especially voice were completely lost in the mix, miles away. The whole thing reminded me of a nightmare I once had about a fridge. I couldn’t see anyone enjoying this performance and I didn’t either. Still, they were up there on stage - which is the best place for a musician to be.
The youthful, deft and shaven-headed drummer Chris Corsano came on after a break and played for about 30 minutes on his own. He veered quickly between improv-style moves (like Eddie Prévost) and a heavy sort of jazz soloing style. He also does circular breathing and so played some kind of wind instrument into his snare drum while continuing his drum ranging. It was his humid soulful Elvin Jones rhythms on the kit that really got me going, however. I felt a lot of joy and gratitude listening to this performance. And in all honesty have I ever experienced that before at a live gig? Maybe a handful of times. Incredible musical performances usually reach me on film - like watching Jimmy Page in The Song Remains The Same. What would be really exciting would be to hear Chris Corsano playing rock drums, holding down his exploratory urge but letting it escape now and then. You can hear him on the track School of the Flower by Six Organs of Admittance. Two pro-looking websites there!
Finally Jack Rose took the stage and played a pretty long set of John Fahey style stuff, dense American ragas on solo accoustic guitar. These mp3s are just like what I heard. I could hear at least 2 whole riffs quoted from the only John Fahey album I have. Which is no criticism though: this was a brilliant show by Jack Rose. It was also great because you could hear each other talk over it, he didn’t dominate as a rock band almost always does. It wasn’t this boring thing where you have to stand there and get sore legs and bored ears listening to the set. The three of us sat over in the seats and had some drinks and forgot about flu and talked music and had a laugh. Jack Rose’s transcendental music cures head and heart and let’s you be you, it gives you space.