Location: Ljubljana / Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Concert date: 03/16/2012
Attendance: 550
Ticket price: €18.00
Thank God, finally a gig, and it was last Friday. For the last stop of their tour, Irish post-rockers God is an Astronaut played Kino Šiška again on Friday, March 16, after a gap of just under a year. I’d gone to their show last April too. Back then they were a complete unknown to me, and what pulled me in was really just the name and a couple of tracks I’d skimmed on their YouTube channel. And since that show was a total standout and easily one of the best gigs I went to last year, I decided to repeat the exercise this year. On their last visit, God is an Astrounaut had Coma Stereo as support, and this time it was Slovenia’s The Canyon Observer, definitely one of the better alternative acts in the country right now.
The latter showed up in a really good light. Only the sound was a bit less intense, but still good enough that it’s hard to pin any shortcomings on the band’s stage presence. The instruments came through clearly, and the vocals were downright superb, sitting just far enough back in the mix, almost »from beyond the grave«. Musically, this band flirts with more modern approaches and has no problem pulling in whatever genres they see fit. So we got sludge moments spiced up with shoegaze guitar, and vocals that range from a piercing scream to heart-wrenching singing, and then some. Since they’ve only put out one EP so far, they naturally played tracks from it. What I liked most, though, was the very last song, which worked on the less-is-more principle. Extremely repetitive, yet not boring for a second, it was more than a fitting way to close out the night.
The second gig was slowly approaching and all I could do was hope the sound would be at least roughly like last year’s. These guys are clearly hard workers, having put out five albums and one EP in the last eight years. But the difference between the albums and the live experience is pretty substantial. On the records the ambient and climactic hard-hitting moments are more blended together and the bass drum isn’t as pronounced, while at the show it’s exactly the opposite. The whole time I was trying to work out how best to describe the music, until I concluded that the whole concept is a lot like an orgasm. A calm start, a near-peak that brings you back into somewhat calmer waters, and then the orgasm, a killer burst of release. That’s also why some people might find them monotonous, since they stick pretty strictly to this concept. The rhythm is interesting too, because it’s basically drum and bass rhythms at various speeds. That’s also why the crowd came from all walks of life: metalheads, middle-aged folks, alternative kids, “emo” kids, “you name it”. This mixed bunch helped create an interesting effect at the end of songs, when we’d normally fall back on the other habits that belong to concert etiquette.. So at the end of the tracks, the hall filled with shouts mixed with applause and yelling, not far from what you’d hear at a Bon Jovi show.
Probably also because it was the last show of the tour, they decided to play a sort of best-of, and they didn’t skip a single album. It was fun to hear a track from the first album (When Everything Dies) followed by one from the latest (Fragile), because the band’s evolutionary path just revealed itself in an instant. The projections behind the band were totally out there too. It started with one circle, with an effect like peeking through a keyhole, and over time the circle turned into two. The footage playing behind them was a kind of mix of creepy clips, planets and outer space. So, women in gas masks, then a planet the next moment, graves, space. And it all matched the music beautifully. The sound was, of course, superb again. How these guys pull it off, I don’t know. I’ve been to plenty of death metal shows at Kino Šiška, but nothing compares to GIAA when it comes to sheer force. When the drummer thunders here, he thunders so hard your trousers shake. The band doesn’t have a vocalist, but on the tracks where you might miss one, the keyboard takes over his role, rising high above the other instruments in those moments, though not to the point of overshadowing them. I’d rather say it dominates them.
Considering this was the last show of the tour, they also gave us a very decent encore, which we summoned by stomping our feet, something I got to do myself for the first time in my life. In near-total silence, all you could hear was the stomping. If it works, so be it. To wrap up, let me leave you with this: if you’re even somewhat open-minded about music, give yourself and God is an Astronaut a chance, and if you like the guys, it’ll pay you back a thousandfold. Their music is the kind that allows for at least a thousand different interpretations and, of course, impressions.
Setlist
1. When Everything Dies
2. Fragile
3. From Dust to the Beyond
4. Age of the Fifth Sun
5. Echoes
6. Remembrance Day
7. Shadows
8. Worlds In Collision
9. Zodiac
10. Snowfall
11. Suicide by Star
12. Forever Lost
13. Route 666
—encore—
14. All Is Violent, All Is Bright
15. Fire Flies and Empty Skies
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