MP3: Storkboy Choons/Colours Move-Whelans March 9th 2008
Sunday took a bunch of us to Whelans to check out my brother road-testing his nascent laptop-tronica project "storkboy choons" in public for the first time. He was third on the bill of a Foggy Notions curated line up that included Ugly Megan and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. I went to the gig not being familiar with either of these acts. I thought Ugly Megan's use of one of those sound effects keyrings in one of their songs pushed them into the territory of being too affected for my taste. Lots of people dug their fey sounds though, including those geese were stupefied who writes a great review here. I watched Casiotone from an upper balcony, from where he appeared to be a big beardy gremlin standing inside a ginormous trashed TV set, such were the amount of wires, jacks and pedals surrounding him. I liked a lot of what I heard, particularly his delicate reading of Bruce Springsteen's 'streets of Philadelphia' which exerted a tug on my Smithwick's soaked heart. Other than that, I can't say much, except he appeared very uncomfortable on stage and was perhaps singing with his mouth too close to the mic. My interest was piqued enough to revisit his records to get fully acquainted with them.
Photo taken by Loreana Rushe, bastardised by Gardenhead.
But enough of this. Lets review the *ahem most important act of the night, Storkboy Choons, ably helped by his good mate Colours Move. First things first. The lads need to overcome the perennial problem of how to create a dynamic live show out of pushing laptop buttons. Because they came on and sat in two black leather chairs, it felt like we were about to be treated to an episode of mastermind. To me, the way forward would be some freaky visuals that sit well with their fresh, undulating take on electronica. However, its testament to how arresting their live set was that I soon forgot about the slightly awkward spectacle of them on stage. They had basically reworked around 6 or 7 tracks (that have featured on this blog from time to time in demo form) into a seamless beefy live mix that built into some explosive moments of shoegaze melody that sounded a bit like Ulrich Schnauss riding beats akin to Underworld. The mixing was top notch too, with a bit of Jay Z and Syd Barrett cleverly threaded into the madness. Two tacks in particular summed the lads up. First was Colours Move's 'Sad Songs' remix which in its latest incarnation is a merciless wall of jackhammer sound effects. Played in a sweatier, less inhibited setting, that tune could slay a crowd. Second, was 'Rockfield Symphony' by Storkboy which managed to sound twinkly and innocent, but in a massive banging way. It has a sort of synthesizer breakdown half ways through that's proper fookin' huge like. If it wasn't the most dynamic gig visually, it certainly was musically and I'd bet on them doing well. I believe another gig is potenially in the pipeline. I'd dare say it'll be a more suitable slot in terms of the heads they'll be playing to.
8 comments:
youre better at photoshop than me!!!!!
cheers, i agree that we're not the best to look at, but hopefully we'll get a bit of visuals which should sort that, i personally though sad songs and do the octopus were the best,
thats a class photoshop job, although did you notice the resemblance ciaran has with 'Where's Wally"
Good review, i agree with jiffy, sad songs and octopus were high points alright, along with the nevs shouts!
As long as your visuals are mad freaky shit and not the usual dull out of focus super 8 bollocks.
Fractals and footage of kids with seagull heads flying over the streets of dublin if we can get it.
Otherwise Super 8 footage of holidays our aunties and uncles went on in the seventies
i think the paper mache stork and seagull heads need to be made this time!!!
don't knock super 8!
absolutely fantastic show!!!
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