Sunday, August 19, 2007

Slint - Live @ Tripod, Dublin



A roughly chronological account of the gig...



1. The morning before, when I was finding the link for blend's review of Spiderland, I noticed that it had been posted in March of this year, meaning I had only been listening to Slint for less than five months. Scary.



2. Before the show started, we were all wondering how they were going to stretch this beyond 40 minutes... it's a good question. Part of the answer is, obviously, they didn't come on stage for an hour after the printed time (but all bands do that anyway). The rest of the answer... well, skip to 4. if you want to know quickly.



3. When they started playing the first few bars of 'Breadcrumb Trail', it sounded like the most familiar thing in the world. This was basically like listening to the album, but better in every way. Or if you were able to listen to the album at tremendous volume, in a room full of people, maybe that... The first sequence of 'Breadcrumb Trail' and 'Nosferatu Man' was pretty damn rocking, and then they slowed it down a bit for 'Don, Aman', when the two guitars came and sat opposite each other on stools in the middle of the stage. Halfway through 'Washer' I was thinking, maybe now I understand a little bit more what Indian Summer felt 'with the needle dragging the end of the slint lp', and where they took a lot of their sound from. The same with 'For Dinner' and the echoes of Max Colby... not really that all those bands are derivative, but that Slint just created this massively important aesthetic. Finally, with 'Good Morning, Captain', we were left with "I MISS YOU!!!" reverberating in our ears, and wondering... what happens now?



3a. To the friend who tried to ring me just before they started 'Good Morning, Captain', thanks. Really appreciate it. The phone stayed off the rest of the gig, and I hope you found the answer to your question elsewhere. Also, it was fun meeting up with everyone in the pub afterwards, saying 'Who the hell are Slint?'. The best band ever, obviously...



4. They played 'Glenn' and 'Rhoda'! That is, after playing Spiderland in its entirety, they played the Glenn/Rhoda EP in its entirety. I was pretty stoked to hear the album, and that would in itself have made the gig awesome, but hearing those two songs live just blew me away. Especially after just writing a review of those songs, to hear them so unexpectedly was memorable to say the least. Mind you, I used to think 'Glenn' was a quiet song. Not so live, however... 'Rhoda' was also upgraded to "earth-shattering". Just awesome.



5. In fact, they stretched out what everyone was expecting to be a six-song gig into a nine-song gig, with the addition of 'Glenn', 'Rhoda' and another song I didn't recognize, [but which I now know is 'King's Approach'] this one new song they have been playing as an encore. It was a kind of heavy, complex guitar song... at that point, I was already glutted on old-school Slint, so I didn't take much notice. It was quite different, actually, from anything that they're known for, and to be honest wasn't really my style. I can see why it has that name, though...


6. Now, when do I get to see 'The For Carnation Performing The For Carnation'?

_________________________________________


And now, for a kind of postscript/piece de resistance, this 12'' record was released one year after Glenn/Rhoda, sits 3 CDs in front of Spiderland in my own collection, is deservedly one of Andy Radin's 'top emo records', and is an excellent split, combining two major bands with differing yet complementary styles, and indeed containing some of the best songs ever released by either group: the Shotmaker-Maximillian Colby split (as if this post needed any more Slint worship!). (Note: I just made the split myself from the tracks culled from their discographies, so apologies if these are technically the wrong versions or something... neither do I know which band should come first, this is just the way I've always loved and listened to it!)

11 comments:

David said...

If the song was about 10 minutes long then it could have definetly been "King's Aprroach". It's a supposed new song they've been playing. This is it live
http://www.mediafire.com/?cxwzlfiz5da

Hopefully they'll play it tonight!

gabbagabbahey said...

hehe, I didn't read the time of your post properly yesterday, thought you were seeing them that night. Hope I didn't spoil anything for you!

It sounds like that was the song... Best stupid crowd comment of the night; "Make a new album!". Well, with one song after more than a decade, we'll be a while waiting yet!

gabbagabbahey said...

Yep, David, that was definitely it. I've edited the review to make note of that, thanks!

But to be honest, I didn't think much of it. It was good, I guess, but not in the usual Slint style. At this point, I'd be more psyched about a new For Carnation album than a new Slint album. But that's just my taste, really.

sweet baby jaysus said...

sounds like someone saw the show of a lifetime. i need me something like that. great review of the show, and you should do a for carnation post, don't know anything about them, but from the way you talk them up, i'd definately be interested in hearing some.

gabbagabbahey said...

hey sbj, blend did a post of the for carnation s/t a while back. just type the name into the search box on ZAFP.

I don't think the dl link is available though (it's a Touch and Go release). Basically, though, the For Carnation is Brian McMahan post-Slint band. Very quiet, very atmospheric. I might post them sometime

David said...

they played the same setlist but it was still utterly amazing. was shaking and grinning all the way through...

The guy's are truly amazing and werent afraid to have a bit of a joke with the crowd ( Pajo started playing a kind of Surfing riff at one stage while we where waiting for the next song and everybody burst out laughing).

Got some pic's and short vid's on my blog...best band ever!

gabbagabbahey said...

Cool! What's the url of your blog? It doesn't come up on your profile...

David said...

yet to fix my profile lol

www.fate-human-carbine.blogspot.com

not long started it

blend77 said...

wow!

so envious! it sounds like it was a great show. and to hear Glenn and Rhoda... whew!

Washer is one of my alltime favorite songs, and is the only song that can bring a tear to my eye... Good Morning Captain can have that effect at the end, but Washer nails it all the way through...

this is some lyrics from the Pinback song ADK from Summer of Abaddon. Not my favorite song of theirs, but definitely some great lyrics...

"Miles and miles of telephone poles
Fallen and tossed around
I can't talk to you anymore
And I miss you
And I miss you
Not in a Slint way, but I miss you"

props to the Max Colby Shotmaker split... I thankfully kept all my Shotmaker and Max Colby vinyl and that split is easily the best...

gabbagabbahey said...

yeah, I remember you mentioning those lyrics in your spiderland post. I must go check out some pinback from your site.

gabbagabbahey said...

If anyone here thinks (and they're probably right!) that this review is a bit too uncrictically positive, here's a contrasting opinion of a blogger who saw the same show a couple of days later in Glasgow

http://mrmammoth.blogspot.com/2007/08/slint-performing-spiderland-glasgow.html

Honestly, I would find it hard to agree with much of what is said, but it's a damn good review nonetheless.