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Stars of the Lid gig last night
StoreTags: stars of the li, kranky
Author: Ochre on May 25 2008 Viewed 1669 times. 10 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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Went to the penultimate Stars of the Lid gig last night, at a church here in Newcastle upon Tyne, and quite enjoyed it (even if my bum was numb being perched on a pew for three hours).
They had a string trio with them, and stood either side of the trio, fiddling with their various effects boxes etc. Both chaps had MIDI guitars and controller keyboards triggering soft samplers (they had their laptops closed, on the floor beneath the keyboard stands), looping pedals, distortion pedals, and an upright piano. It was at times difficult to see what they were doing, as the guitar strums didn't always correlate with what was coming out of the speakers (due to the processing chains no doubt), but it was cool to see such an involved setup.
Did anyone else catch them? | |
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05/25/08
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ignatius
i only have a handful of their recordings and i like what i have. they are one of those bands i keep meaning to get more into.
the show sounds interesting. i like the idea of closed laptops. pretty awesome they had a string trio w/them. i think i would have just closed my eyes and drifted off.
05/25/08
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tmns
I saw them in Glasgow, it was pretty amazing. Good to see a Glasgow audience completely silent for a change. Their cover of Arvo Part - Fratres was the highlight for me. Didn't enjoy the support acts very much. Who supported in Newcastle?
05/25/08
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Ochre
The support acts were called D_rradio and Mariposa, but I'm not sure which was which -- the first had a bunch of stuff on a table, little hand cymbals, whistles etc., and just built layers of cacophony up. Sounded rather messy and atonal, and didn't impress. The second act sounded better, kind of like Roger Eno -- two guitarists playing with string swells and loads of reverb. Not a huge amount of tonal variety though, so got a little boring and somewhat forgettable.
The SoTL was quite appealing due to having a visual aspect (projections, string players), a high geek factor (loads of shit everywhere, pedals, MIDI guitars, piano, amps) and good stage setup -- I can imagine it being a good gig to different people for different reasons. I loved the sound of the bass samples -- so meaty.
05/25/08
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bodo
wow SoTL doing a cover version of Arvo Pärt's Fratres?
now that's something I would love to hear/see!
05/25/08
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tmns
Yeah the bass sounded lovely, and the the visuals were definitely the icing on the cake. I couldn't really make out any individual guitar sounds through the whole thing, it all just merged into one huge sound wall. They've inspired me to get working on my own live set.
05/25/08
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tmns
Bodo: here's a short video from last fm of them playing fratres link
05/25/08
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reehc
I saw them in Glasgow too, totally brilliant and uplifting.
05/25/08
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dach
I was a bit disappointed with the last album. Was the live version different/better?
What did you mean with 'penultimate' gig, penultimate for the current tour or are they ending the band?
05/25/08
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reehc
dach I think it was just the end of the tour, & yeah I think so the string quartet they were playing with and the visuals as well as the sound being pretty good made it worth going to see
05/25/08
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hecanjog
I was hoping for a little more of an original treatment on fratres than the occasional guitar ooodleoo, but I can imagine that would have been a really lovely 3 minute aside in the middle of their set anyhow.
I'd love to see these guys play!
05/25/08
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Roshi
We wanted to open up for them so badly...but it was a package deal...Christopher Willits opened, and a local quartet played some Shostakovich before them.
I thought it was triumphantly beautiful, especially as loud as they played...very nice.
Here are some pics from the portland gig: link
link
link
link
And here's one from mapmap: link
05/25/08
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Ochre
tmns said: "Yeah the bass sounded lovely, and the the visuals were definitely the icing on the cake. I couldn't really make out any individual guitar sounds through the whole thing, it all just merged into one huge sound wall. They've inspired me to get working on my own live set."
Yeah, it definitely has led me to reconsider the way I play live; I'm thinking MIDI guitar might be a good idea to incorporate somehow -- shall have to work on that. To try and keep the laptop staring down to a minimum.
I couldn't really tell what the guitars were doing either to be honest -- would be interested in knowing a bit more about how they worked with the guitars live, but I guess that's a trade secret.
But yeah -- careful venue choice was a huge factor in my own enjoyment. I'm pretty sure I would've been less enthusiastic if it had been in a club or bar environment, standing room only; church's are perfect for beatless music.
edited: May 25 2008
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tmns
brian mcbrides tour blog on myspace is a good read - link , interesting to read about things from their perspective. that's from last years tour, if you go back to the main profile, theres another one for this years tour, but they haven't updated it with the recent shows yet.
05/25/08
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bodo
tmns said: "Bodo: here's a short video from last fm of them playing fratres link"
thanks for that, that ws just wonderful, though I agree with hecanjog about the lack of originality of their version, it's still such a mesmerising piece of music, got the goosebumps from the first 'till the last note 
05/25/08
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tmns
I'm sure on Thursday the version of Fratres was about 20 mins long. that videos from last years tour, so maybe it's been evolving as they tour.
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