No One’s a God to Godspeed (2012)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Location: Ljubljana / Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Concert date: November 14, 2012
Attendance: 900
Ticket price: 25 EUR, 20 EUR (pupils, students, seniors) / 27 EUR on the day of the show

This year the post-rock scene saw two big comebacks from bands we had buried long ago. Both returned overnight, out of nowhere, zombie-style, shaking all the rotten earth off themselves and starting to wreck everything in front of them. Warren Ellis and his The Dirty Three, with anti-propaganda against today’s music industry; Efrim Menuck and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, with anti-propaganda against the Canadian authorities (which is practically a reflection of all Western politics). The latter’s return was a much bigger surprise and made a much bigger splash, since Godspeed hadn’t been on the scene since 2004, and there were no signs whatsoever that they might come back. In 2010 or 2011 they started playing shows again, with no media meddling and no promotion around that decision. This year, at the September and October shows, they then started selling a vinyl record with a cover totally unknown to the audience (yet, thanks to its dark, post-apocalyptically tinted photograph, so familiar) that bore the name ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! (You can read RockLine’s review of the album HERE). It really was a new album, evidently recorded with no promotion, no announcement and no other form of communication about their status that could have involved the media. Godspeed are known for really not liking music journalism in the form and mission described. The Dirty Three, on the other hand, came back more quietly with their first studio album in seven years, despite the much more showy performing style Warren Ellis brings to his gigs, interviews and so on. This year both prominent outfits also set off on their own tours, and of course every Slovenian fan of either band started looking at the nearest places where they could catch a show. The first wave of euphoria was set off by the news from Constellation Records that Godspeed would stop by here too on their tour, at Kino Šiška. We’ve been calling 2012 the year of post-rock for Slovenia for a while now (shows by God is an Astronaut, Sleepmakeswaves, Kerretta, Maybeshewill, Sigur Rós, Crippled Black Pheonix etc. certainly confirm that), and still that particular news pumped adrenaline into every fan. But nobody had dreamed it would be a special night in one more way. The Dirty Three were announced alongside Godspeed, since their route just happened to cross Slovenia. So Slovenia didn’t just tick off one more date of the two bands’ tour, but probably the most important, or most special, one. And that’s one hell of a reference going forward.

It was clear Kino Šiška would be packed. On the day of the show only a few tickets were left. That’s also more than great advertising for the future: people are actually ready to go to events like this, and it pays off for the organizers (and, in the end, the band). The audience for this kind of music exists and is ready to come to Ljubljana from every corner of Slovenia. On top of that, there were quite a few foreigners too, mostly Croatians and Italians, who didn’t get a date for Godspeed (but did get one for The Dirty Three).

It’s clear right away that these are two really different acts. The spirit of The Dirty Three is soaked in goofing around, in showmanship, in big stage lights pointed at Warren Ellis. The stage lights are what the band needs to pull off its performance to the extent it’s meant to be. The time Warren takes between songs to lash out at the music industry, capitalism and today’s consumer lifestyle is a big part of what the band stands for. More than once Warren got honestly tangled up in his song descriptions in the style of »this song is about this and that«, but thanks to his strong charisma he always put smiles on the audience’s faces. Bashing Justin Bieber is obviously still »in«, or at least »in« enough that spitting on his name gets you a thunderous round of applause from the crowd. »Fuck you, Justin Bieber,« and you’re already a hero. Thank God Warren and the other two Dirties don’t rely on showmanship alone (though here it was really only the frontman who leaned on it). Music still came first. That fantastic, crazy music which, apart from the ballads (plenty of those), mirrors Warren’s charisma. Drummer Jim White certainly mirrored it too, one of the most explosive drummers I’ve ever seen. I’ve never heard such loud pounding with a jazz grip on the stick. It was an unstoppable flailing of both arms, to the point where the eye could no longer follow them, a massacre of the drums in every second of the set, which was at the same time precise, refined and very much in control, deliberate and always in context. Watching the chemistry between Warren and Jim was a real pleasure. In the improvised parts, in the changes of volume and playing speed… they played as one. Guitarist Mick Turner, meanwhile, was almost completely shut out of that elite duo. He stared apathetically at the floor a few meters away, even though his playing is something special. Something that never quite fit the concept, yet precisely by not fitting added something entirely its own and, in the end, entirely kindred (contradiction was the word of the day). Despite the occasionally tasteless showmanship (judging by the comments during the break), The Dirty Three delivered crazy music, a unique interpretation of the elusive term »post-rock« and, in an hour and a half, fully justified their name. Warren showed the other side of his role in Nick Cave’s band, where the title of frontman of course belongs to Nick, even though Warren is, clearly, fully up to the task.

The energetic set left the audience talkative, expectant, ready. Godspeed You! Black Emperor are just (one more) event of the year, something that deserves high praise. The first thing, expected as it was, was the blow of the classic Godspeed intro – »Hope Drone«. Menuck’s idea of visuals in the background led us through the single-tone echo behind it, and the word »Hope« gradually burned itself into our brains. We forgot about The Dirty Three, about Warren’s clowning, about stage lights. Godspeed don’t like those. Only their idea speaks, their music, their philosophy. The band members are irrelevant to the message. And what a realization it was when I figured out that the heap of amplifiers (maybe pile would be a better word, because there really were a huge number of amps) was set up in a semicircle; it was an amphitheater-style arrangement. That made me think Godspeed would actually fit crazy well in a smaller, more intimate space, with no PA system, just their own amps. In any case, they got the final word – they brought their own tech and their own mixer (which was actually placed in the middle of the stage and was the best-lit thing up there), which means the amps were sent first into their mixing desk and only then into the one at Kino Šiška. The sound was, of course, fantastic, perfect. A few people complained afterwards about the volume being too high, but to me it felt just right. Loud enough that you couldn’t hear the couple whispering next to you, loud enough that with your eyes closed you forgot about the other people around you, loud enough that you sank effortlessly into this ocean of sound and still had enough oxygen that you never needed to swim up to the surface.

The setlist was more or less known. »Hope Drone«, one track from the new record, their new creation »Behemoth« that runs about 40 minutes… and you’ve already got a solidly long show. After »Hope Drone« came a track from the latest album, – »Mladic«. In my review I already wrote about all that angst, the anger Godspeed show this time (as opposed to the more melancholic post-apocalyptic feel they mostly show) when they »talk« about Mladić and all the victims of war – live, it’s only amplified. The wave of sound that reaches the listener in the heavier parts barely lets the lungs take a single breath, barely lets the ears hear anything, and barely lets the listener sit still enough not to tear their clothes off. This is less a song of sorrow than a battle cry against the atrocities committed. And that’s how Godspeed play it. Beyond all the messages, the playing itself certainly has a musical side too – the amount of improvisation GY!BE bring into their music is just incredible. Of course the length of the tracks lets them do that nonstop; this time, for instance, they started with the ending; within some of the same riffs, the same parts, they kept changing tiny, tiny details – the speed, the volume, one of the three guitars played an octave, maybe they bent a string a bit more to make the dissonance more obvious. Maybe each of the guitarists had one effect more or one less in the flood of pedals. These were really small things, but they were immensely audible and made the drone parts, the repeating riffs, so gargantuan, so interesting, so different from one another. The show, almost two and a half hours long, was full of emotional charge, full of genius, full of every last ounce of strength Godspeed draw from their brilliant philosophy, from their mission, from the primary role of the artist as messenger. Volume too high or not, drone parts too long or not… nobody left the hall apathetic and indifferent.

The verdict after the show is actually the expected one – we witnessed one of the events of the year, and not just on Slovenian soil. The two bands together conjured up a phenomenal evening, one I wouldn’t add anything to or take anything away from. The Dirty Three were an excellent “opener”, precisely because of the monumental contrast the Godspeeds created the second »Hope Drone« started echoing, and we could fully grasp just how different Godspeed are; not that I’m underestimating Warren – it was a fantastic performance. But nobody can match Godspeed. And nobody’s a god to Godspeed.