Six Organs Of Admittance, Bush Hall, London, 04-12-09
With two diminutive Christmas trees illuminating either side of the stage of the vaudevillian interior Bush Hall, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the music and style of Ben Chasny seemed a little out of place, the yuletide consumerist madness that floats like a conspicuous mist throughout London through Christmas at odds with Chasny’s free style and overtly un-consumerist psychedelic folk/ drone hybrid: A behemoth of creation that rules under the moniker of Six Organs of Admittance.
Staying mostly within his ‘Shelter from the Ash’ material, Chasny and co brought a full band sound to the otherwise soloists performance, adding a textured element of guitar drone that, at times, made their sound not too far from the hallowed drone band Earth, undoubtedly producing a similar hazy Americana sound at times.
While a marvel to listen to however, Six Organs of Admittance took to the stage like a shoegaze group who’d just been told of their respective terminal illnesses, having little interaction with the crowd but for the mandatory murmurs of thanks and an unheard remark about the aforementioned Christmas trees. And while it would be foolhardy to turn up to a SO of A gig expecting fireworks and table top dancers, when confronted with technically, lengthy and hypnotic music, more needs to be done in order to get people off their hookah pipes at home and go see the band proper.
Take Sunn0))) for example; minimal audience interaction but through reusing their L.A.R.P clothes and a little bit of lighting trickery the atmosphere becomes one that compliments the audible experience that their music summons.
Earnestly it wasn’t Chasny and band that were at fault as their show was spot on, yet lacking in the abovementioned ambience within the venue made for a stripped down and bland environment with some people choosing to leave before the performance ended: hell even a few more chairs would have been ideal so that those wanting to get lost within the music’s talented and free flowing rhythms could do so without the irritation of spatial awareness.
All in all a mixed bag, but one mixed outside of the band’s control who, despite putting on a technically powerful and psychedelic performance was let down by the venue’s lack of a certain ‘je ne sais quoi.’
Six Organs of Admittance at Stone Henge at sunrise of the summer solstice; hell yeah!
But in a mock deco hall with two adjacent plastic Christmas trees; it just doesn’t quite measure up.
Photo: Creative Commons photo by IntangibleArts - http://www.flickr.com/photos/intangible/2218982226/
