Location: Channel Zero (Metelkova) / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 22.04.2007
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: 10.00€
The crew from San Francisco proved they don’t need sleep to pull off a top-notch, high-energy show. They kept Channel Zero on its feet for more than two hours and still had enough left in the tank to come back for an encore. You can tell they love playing live and feed off the crowd’s energy.
The night kicked off with support act Coma Stereo from Maribor. They’re an interesting post-rock outfit that clearly draws from bands like Sigur Ros, Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and The Cure too. Their first track was really promising. It started out slow, with ambient keys, then the guitars gradually crept in and it grew into an excellent, bouncy melody. Sadly, the following songs didn’t build on that strong opening, and what came next was a string of tunes that stuck way too closely to the same pattern. Still, the guys have a good feel for melody. They just need a bit more imagination and a bit less repetition.
When eleven o’clock struck, a pretty sizable crowd had squeezed into Channel Zero. It took a while before Sleepytime Gorilla Museum could start, since they still had to sort everything out with their countless instruments. The various percussion and plucked instruments they use quite often are especially interesting.
The opening wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. They started with a song that was a bit too bland for my taste. Soon they switched over to metal, which bugged me even more. But the crowd was obviously waiting for exactly that, because they came most alive during the wilder, more metal parts. And that’s kind of the point, so fair enough. SGM didn’t come to please me, they wanted to please as many people as possible. But I got my share too. Between the wilder parts there were also avant-garde moments that were more my speed, with complex rhythms and odd time signatures. That I liked a lot more. I especially enjoyed it when the excellent violinist took the lead. Unfortunately there were a bit too few of those segments, and way too much metal screaming from the lead vocalist and guitarist. But people were happy, and you’ve got to give people what they want. Bread and circuses! Personally, I preferred the violinist’s vocal style. Still, the singer deserves props too, since he chatted with the crowd throughout in a friendly, funny way and even told a few interesting anecdotes.
The show felt a little too long to me, since I had serious trouble breathing because of the pretty smoky club. Maybe that colored my overall verdict on the gig a bit. But SGM really do deserve praise, since they were immensely energetic and full of enthusiasm the whole show. In my opinion the audience picks up on that too and catches the good vibes. Stylistically the music isn’t really my thing, but there were quite a few interesting parts that made it worth coming. The sound at the show struck me as pretty poor, especially compared to the incredibly clean sound at the festival in Albi. But that was a festival with a big stage, and this was a cramped club, so the comparison isn’t really fair.
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum definitely deserve top marks for innovation and originality in their music, but I find them less impressive when it comes to the compositions themselves. Some things repeat too much, some things feel half-baked, and only rarely did they truly win me over. Still, it’s obvious that live shows suit this band perfectly, since they know how to get a crowd on its feet and keep them there.
Finally, I’d also like to give props to the venue and Metelkova in general. Metelkova is the only place where some really interesting bands play, ones who may not be all that popular worldwide but are every bit as good when it comes to musical mastery. Hats off.
Words: Rok Podgrajšek
Setlist
1. The Companions
2. I
3. Helpless Corpses Enactment
4. Angle of Repose
5. FC: The Freedom Club
6. Ambugaton
7. Powerless
8. Phthisis
9. Ossuary
10. Ablutions
11. Sleep is wrong
LINEUP:
– Nils Frykdahl / guitar, vocals
– Matthias Bossi / drums, percussion, vocals
– Dan Rathbun / bass, cimbalom, vocals
– Moe!Staiano /percussion, guitar, trumpet, vocals
– Carla Kihlstedt / violin, percussion, vocals
