I really wasn’t sure what to expect when it was announced that an album by The Messthetics was due for release on Dischord records. Obviously, I knew that the formidable rhythm section of Brendan Canty and Joe Lally were involved, alongside guitarist Anthony Pirog, but when you consider the varied projects they’ve been involved-with since Fugazi were last active, that certainly didn’t make any particular sound or direction clear. Additionally, Anthony was coming from a much-more avant-garde, free-jazz background, so would be providing a whole new element to the proceedings. But the one thing I knew for sure was that I could trust that Brendan and Joe would still be the awesome rhythm section that they have always been and that if they were involved, the project was going to be well-worth investigating.
When the album appeared, it certainly didn’t disappoint. Entirely instrumental, the band performed in the traditional ‘power-trio’ format, creating lots of energy and movement, but also allowing plenty of room for improvisation and creativity. On first listen, I can understand that some people have been perplexed by the more jazz-influenced attributes of the record, but the more you hear it, the more it makes sense. There are some parallels to be drawn with Fugazi’s later-music, as Joe and Brendan were such an integral part of that sound, but this is also very much its’ own beast, with Anthony elaborating on the themes and providing the colour over the rhythmic base. No doubts, he’s an incredible guitarist and if you’ve ever been impressed by the likes of Jimi Hendrix or Frank Zappa, this is someone you need to check out (NB, this is a very basic comparison, but I hope it will serve to intrigue you…)
Having enjoyed the album, it wasn’t until I saw the band play live that things really fell into place. When you see them perform, that’s when it really comes together. Watching the interaction between the players and hearing the powerful, emotive sounds that they create, this is where it really enters its’ own element. When they played as support to Michael Rother, very few in the audience knew anything about the band, but by the end of the set, they received truly enthusiastic applause and it was well-deserved. I began to hear the same response from other people who saw them over the course of their UK tour… they’d liked the album and it was interesting but it wasn’t until hey saw the band live that it really made sense. As with a lot of music that veers towards the more experimental-field, it has to be seen live for the full-effect to work.
When the album appeared, it certainly didn’t disappoint. Entirely instrumental, the band performed in the traditional ‘power-trio’ format, creating lots of energy and movement, but also allowing plenty of room for improvisation and creativity. On first listen, I can understand that some people have been perplexed by the more jazz-influenced attributes of the record, but the more you hear it, the more it makes sense. There are some parallels to be drawn with Fugazi’s later-music, as Joe and Brendan were such an integral part of that sound, but this is also very much its’ own beast, with Anthony elaborating on the themes and providing the colour over the rhythmic base. No doubts, he’s an incredible guitarist and if you’ve ever been impressed by the likes of Jimi Hendrix or Frank Zappa, this is someone you need to check out (NB, this is a very basic comparison, but I hope it will serve to intrigue you…)
Having enjoyed the album, it wasn’t until I saw the band play live that things really fell into place. When you see them perform, that’s when it really comes together. Watching the interaction between the players and hearing the powerful, emotive sounds that they create, this is where it really enters its’ own element. When they played as support to Michael Rother, very few in the audience knew anything about the band, but by the end of the set, they received truly enthusiastic applause and it was well-deserved. I began to hear the same response from other people who saw them over the course of their UK tour… they’d liked the album and it was interesting but it wasn’t until hey saw the band live that it really made sense. As with a lot of music that veers towards the more experimental-field, it has to be seen live for the full-effect to work.
Catching up with the band before the last date of the UK tour at the Boston Arms, I’d expected to be interviewing all three band members, until Anthony disappeared having commented that he didn’t really know what to say (he lied – I spoke to him later on and, while he is a little understated, proved to be friendly and eloquent. I like the guy !)
So, I end up in the subterranean dressing room with Joe and Brendan and begin by asking how The Messthetics had come together ?
Brendan I first met Anthony just from seeing him around town, playing at different shows. He’d be playing in a kind of rockabilly-jazz band, then he’d be playing a noise-set, or he’d be playing alongside his wife, Janel, who’s a cellist… So I soon became aware of his skill-level and his aesthetic. I became a fan of what he was doing and while I was making one of the films in my ‘Burn to Shine’ series, I thought it would be great to collaborate with him. So he came-in with Janel and I filmed them for that project, during which time I also discovered they were really lovely people. I decided to look for further opportunities to collaborate with them more but nothing really transpired until Joe came back to Washington DC, around four years ago. He had been living in Italy, so when he came back I was really anxious to start playing with him again. He played me a bunch of things he’d been working on while he was in Rome and I really liked them, I thought they were very cool. They were written with really odd time signatures, seven or thirteen time…
Joe I didn’t even understand it myself !
Brendan He’d been working with some fantastic guitar players who were more from the jazz spectrum and also very accomplished. So when he played me those recordings, one of the only people I could think of who would be able to add to it and not just emulate what was already there, was Anthony. I suggested him to Joe and arranged for him to come over. So initially, he was just coming over to play on Joe’s music…
Joe It gave the three of us an opportunity to play on something together and it became very clear that the level of Anthony’s playing was such that that I wouldn’t need to sing over this music. Why would we need a singer ? It almost seemed to go without saying as we all just enjoyed playing-together. He was already busy with some other things he was doing at the time, but a little while later he got back in touch, explained that he was working on a new album and asked if we would like to play as the rhythm section. Of course, we both said yes, and then it was just a case of waiting for him to finish writing the material. Then we just came in and did what we do. We know that we can work-out what we need to do very quickly because we know each other so well… So it just came together until, after a while, we knew that we were a band and we weren’t just making a record with Anthony. Once we’d completed the recordings, we decided to play live and, after the first show, Ian was there and said, ‘I think this would be really good for Dischord !’ That solved a problem we had, because Anthony had been concerned that the label he was originally going to approach to release the album might not like what we had made, but once we knew that Dischord wanted to release it, we were on our way.
So, I end up in the subterranean dressing room with Joe and Brendan and begin by asking how The Messthetics had come together ?
Brendan I first met Anthony just from seeing him around town, playing at different shows. He’d be playing in a kind of rockabilly-jazz band, then he’d be playing a noise-set, or he’d be playing alongside his wife, Janel, who’s a cellist… So I soon became aware of his skill-level and his aesthetic. I became a fan of what he was doing and while I was making one of the films in my ‘Burn to Shine’ series, I thought it would be great to collaborate with him. So he came-in with Janel and I filmed them for that project, during which time I also discovered they were really lovely people. I decided to look for further opportunities to collaborate with them more but nothing really transpired until Joe came back to Washington DC, around four years ago. He had been living in Italy, so when he came back I was really anxious to start playing with him again. He played me a bunch of things he’d been working on while he was in Rome and I really liked them, I thought they were very cool. They were written with really odd time signatures, seven or thirteen time…
Joe I didn’t even understand it myself !
Brendan He’d been working with some fantastic guitar players who were more from the jazz spectrum and also very accomplished. So when he played me those recordings, one of the only people I could think of who would be able to add to it and not just emulate what was already there, was Anthony. I suggested him to Joe and arranged for him to come over. So initially, he was just coming over to play on Joe’s music…
Joe It gave the three of us an opportunity to play on something together and it became very clear that the level of Anthony’s playing was such that that I wouldn’t need to sing over this music. Why would we need a singer ? It almost seemed to go without saying as we all just enjoyed playing-together. He was already busy with some other things he was doing at the time, but a little while later he got back in touch, explained that he was working on a new album and asked if we would like to play as the rhythm section. Of course, we both said yes, and then it was just a case of waiting for him to finish writing the material. Then we just came in and did what we do. We know that we can work-out what we need to do very quickly because we know each other so well… So it just came together until, after a while, we knew that we were a band and we weren’t just making a record with Anthony. Once we’d completed the recordings, we decided to play live and, after the first show, Ian was there and said, ‘I think this would be really good for Dischord !’ That solved a problem we had, because Anthony had been concerned that the label he was originally going to approach to release the album might not like what we had made, but once we knew that Dischord wanted to release it, we were on our way.
Was Anthony already familiar with the different musical projects you had been involved in prior to this ?
Brendan Oh, yeah. I don’t know how well, but he’s certainly familiar with Fugazi and he’s also played with a bunch of different musicians in the past who were definitely aware of what we’d done. I’m not so sure if he was familiar with Joe’s solo records or the Deathfix stuff…
Joe He probably knows a lot more now, because we’ve been playing together. He’s accompanied me for a couple of ‘solo’ shows and they’ve been really easy to do, as well as being a lot of fun. I feel a lot more inclined to play a solo show now, if somebody asks, because I know that Anthony will be involved. That’s all I really need to play a show… a fantastic guitarist ! That’s all I ask for… the very best !!! But, seriously, he just makes it so much easier, because I don’t want to have to get a whole bunch of people together to do things like that. We’re also able to improvise and make things up as we go along, which is something I always wanted to do.
Brendan He’s a very astute improviser and I think that part of being able to do that is also just being a good bandmate. He understands that you have to be a good collaborator and it’s not just about, ‘what can you do for me ?’ If you want to do this kind of thing well, it has to be about what can we do together ? I think that’s what I’ve found to be most refreshing with this band. There’s a lot to learn from each other and you have to be able to keep your ears open so that you can appreciate the direction that the band wants to go in as a collective unit. The only way to get there is by writing and playing together, so that it becomes its’ own organic entity and it behaves by its’ own rules. A big part of being a good band-mate is understanding the needs of the band itself. That’s part of the process for everyone, on a daily basis.
Did you have any particular intentions or ideas when the band first came together ?
Joe I think our only intention was to play music that would be challenging and whilst giving us something that we could learn from. Hopefully, we’d be able to present music to people that they hadn’t already heard, at least in this way. We all listen to a lot of different music so I think we were trying to figure-out what we could do that would be different for us. You bring everything in to what you’re doing, but you also try to break new ground in some way. Beyond that, I don’t think we really had any specific intentions… apart from making enough music so that we could play it to people and then wanting to record it and make an album, so that we could continue to move on. That’s just what you do.
Brendan One of the interesting things I’ve found about this, is trying to find templates that allow us to utilize the freedom of the stage… Finding songs that allow us to improvise or at least elaborate on them live, without getting totally locked-into the original arrangement. Part of the fun of this is not knowing what’s going to happen every night and not knowing where every song is going to go in the next few seconds. That’s one of the challenges that I wasn’t expecting when we started this, but I’ve really enjoyed
Brendan Oh, yeah. I don’t know how well, but he’s certainly familiar with Fugazi and he’s also played with a bunch of different musicians in the past who were definitely aware of what we’d done. I’m not so sure if he was familiar with Joe’s solo records or the Deathfix stuff…
Joe He probably knows a lot more now, because we’ve been playing together. He’s accompanied me for a couple of ‘solo’ shows and they’ve been really easy to do, as well as being a lot of fun. I feel a lot more inclined to play a solo show now, if somebody asks, because I know that Anthony will be involved. That’s all I really need to play a show… a fantastic guitarist ! That’s all I ask for… the very best !!! But, seriously, he just makes it so much easier, because I don’t want to have to get a whole bunch of people together to do things like that. We’re also able to improvise and make things up as we go along, which is something I always wanted to do.
Brendan He’s a very astute improviser and I think that part of being able to do that is also just being a good bandmate. He understands that you have to be a good collaborator and it’s not just about, ‘what can you do for me ?’ If you want to do this kind of thing well, it has to be about what can we do together ? I think that’s what I’ve found to be most refreshing with this band. There’s a lot to learn from each other and you have to be able to keep your ears open so that you can appreciate the direction that the band wants to go in as a collective unit. The only way to get there is by writing and playing together, so that it becomes its’ own organic entity and it behaves by its’ own rules. A big part of being a good band-mate is understanding the needs of the band itself. That’s part of the process for everyone, on a daily basis.
Did you have any particular intentions or ideas when the band first came together ?
Joe I think our only intention was to play music that would be challenging and whilst giving us something that we could learn from. Hopefully, we’d be able to present music to people that they hadn’t already heard, at least in this way. We all listen to a lot of different music so I think we were trying to figure-out what we could do that would be different for us. You bring everything in to what you’re doing, but you also try to break new ground in some way. Beyond that, I don’t think we really had any specific intentions… apart from making enough music so that we could play it to people and then wanting to record it and make an album, so that we could continue to move on. That’s just what you do.
Brendan One of the interesting things I’ve found about this, is trying to find templates that allow us to utilize the freedom of the stage… Finding songs that allow us to improvise or at least elaborate on them live, without getting totally locked-into the original arrangement. Part of the fun of this is not knowing what’s going to happen every night and not knowing where every song is going to go in the next few seconds. That’s one of the challenges that I wasn’t expecting when we started this, but I’ve really enjoyed
Joe People have assumed that we set-out with the intention of being an instrumental band, but this is just something that went that way as we were playing. I don’t think anyone could be in a room while Anthony is playing and then ask, who’s going to sing ? It just isn’t a question that you have to ask because the space to even try to do that isn’t clear at all. How would it even work ? It’s just out of the equation and I think that’s clear when people come to see us. It’s not as if we finish our set and people come up asking if we’re going to get a singer… I think it’s much less of an issue than some people might try to make it out to be and a lot of people are coming along and finding that they enjoy watching us even though they might not be used to seeing a band without a singer… More than a few people have told me that it might take them a few songs to get used to it, but by the end of the set they’re really enjoying the music. I think it’s still possible to express the way you feel without vocals or lyrics and if we hadn’t felt comfortable with that when we first started to play together with Anthony, then we would have been looking to do things differently or tried to build something else. But I listen to a lot of instrumental music and there’s so much of it that I love, so I know it’s possible for musicians to express themselves without vocals. In some ways, more can be expressed or imagined in instrumental music because there aren’t any vocals defining how you should feel. That’s why I’ve always enjoyed lyrics that are a bit more abstract and don’t state everything… they’re more likely to keep you thinking for yourself.
Brendan I think the main thing you try to do when you play music is to create a bond with the listeners, but you can also leave a vacuum so that people can supply their own narrative to what you’re playing. That, to me, is the big promise of instrumental music.
Joe I also like to think that an audience is pretty intelligent and they can do a lot with their minds that you maybe aren’t doing or saying or whatever. They can do a lot with it and I think that was something I tried to do with my solo music. I tried to leave space for the audience to fill-in, to have that interaction there.
As you’ve been saying, a lot of your live performance is based around the improvisation. Did this make it awkward when you were recording the songs, having to define the songs ?
Brendan Not really… we just continued making recordings of each song until we were all happy with them. One of the more-improvised songs on the album is ‘Serpents Tongue’ and I don’t think that song has been played in the same way at all since then. We basically recorded different versions of the songs until we did one that we all became excited about, and that’s what made it onto the record.
Joe I think, in the way that the songs were written for the record, there was more space for Anthony and probably Brendan, whereas I think my parts are pretty clear. Which is fine with me, it’s not as if I was trying to find the space to do different things. All the while we’ve been playing with Anthony, we’ve been looking for ways to open things up and give us that ability to improvise. I think the longer we play together, the more it’s going to be there.’
Brendan I think the main thing you try to do when you play music is to create a bond with the listeners, but you can also leave a vacuum so that people can supply their own narrative to what you’re playing. That, to me, is the big promise of instrumental music.
Joe I also like to think that an audience is pretty intelligent and they can do a lot with their minds that you maybe aren’t doing or saying or whatever. They can do a lot with it and I think that was something I tried to do with my solo music. I tried to leave space for the audience to fill-in, to have that interaction there.
As you’ve been saying, a lot of your live performance is based around the improvisation. Did this make it awkward when you were recording the songs, having to define the songs ?
Brendan Not really… we just continued making recordings of each song until we were all happy with them. One of the more-improvised songs on the album is ‘Serpents Tongue’ and I don’t think that song has been played in the same way at all since then. We basically recorded different versions of the songs until we did one that we all became excited about, and that’s what made it onto the record.
Joe I think, in the way that the songs were written for the record, there was more space for Anthony and probably Brendan, whereas I think my parts are pretty clear. Which is fine with me, it’s not as if I was trying to find the space to do different things. All the while we’ve been playing with Anthony, we’ve been looking for ways to open things up and give us that ability to improvise. I think the longer we play together, the more it’s going to be there.’
It’s quite funny that the band is set-up in the same way as the classic ‘power trio’ format and yet the music you’re playing is almost at odds with what would usually be expected from such a group…
Brendan In some ways, it is cool that everyone knows what their job is. Everybody has their domain within the band and no-one is expendable, so we all feel utilised and necessary, which is a nice thing to know within a band.
And there’s also the way that the music moves… it’s not just trying to be clever or experimental for its’ own sake, it has a real groove to it, so that audiences can get into it and enjoy themselves…
Brendan Well, there have been some moments, hahaha ! There have definitely been a few shows where we’ve ended up wondering what we’ve been doing !
Joe But I think part of it is that Brendan and I also have our own ideas of what we want to express, so it’s not as if Anthony has ever been pulling us in directions where we’d feel uncomfortable. There are some things that he’s brought-in that we’re not yet satisfied with, so they’re still sitting there until we are happy with what we can do with them. The idea of it is there, but we haven’t all come to grips with what we’re doing with it, yet. We may have a good idea of what we want to do, but if we’re not yet 100% happy with it, then it’ll stay sitting there until we are.
There had been quite a long gap since the two of you had last played together, so how was it when you started playing again. Was there any awkwardness or did things just fall back into place naturally ?
Brendan It had been 15 years since we last played together, but as soon as we started playing again it was all, like, muscle-memory, for sure.
Joe It certainly didn’t seem to be a case of having forgotten anything. The way we play together was just there waiting to happen again.
Brendan Joe’s like a bass-players’ bass player… he just wants to be a bass player and he doesn’t need, like four million effects going into his bass. He can play it heavy and really lay it down, which is almost a rarity. There’s a lot of bass players who want to be guitar players, so they end-up doing a lot of stuff that just doesn’t sound right. But to play with a bass player who just wants to be a bass player is awesome. It’s a very solid foundation and it allows us to play the way we play. Not everyone I’ve played with allows me to play that way.
I think it’s good that Anthony has come from a very different background and already has his own style, so he’s come to this band as an independent source rather than a musician who might just want to emulate what you two had done in the past…
Joe I think that’s been an advantage of the whole situation. He just liked the way that we play together, which he discovered when we first rehearsed. If it hadn’t turned out that way, I doubt he would have asked us to do anything else with him. That’s really good for us because the last thing we’d want would be somebody who just wanted to play with us because we had been in Fugazi or whatever. Not that something like that would be the end of the world or anything, but it just wouldn’t go anywhere. The person would be satisfied as soon as we played together so they wouldn’t even be looking to do anything else ’
Brendan In some ways, it is cool that everyone knows what their job is. Everybody has their domain within the band and no-one is expendable, so we all feel utilised and necessary, which is a nice thing to know within a band.
And there’s also the way that the music moves… it’s not just trying to be clever or experimental for its’ own sake, it has a real groove to it, so that audiences can get into it and enjoy themselves…
Brendan Well, there have been some moments, hahaha ! There have definitely been a few shows where we’ve ended up wondering what we’ve been doing !
Joe But I think part of it is that Brendan and I also have our own ideas of what we want to express, so it’s not as if Anthony has ever been pulling us in directions where we’d feel uncomfortable. There are some things that he’s brought-in that we’re not yet satisfied with, so they’re still sitting there until we are happy with what we can do with them. The idea of it is there, but we haven’t all come to grips with what we’re doing with it, yet. We may have a good idea of what we want to do, but if we’re not yet 100% happy with it, then it’ll stay sitting there until we are.
There had been quite a long gap since the two of you had last played together, so how was it when you started playing again. Was there any awkwardness or did things just fall back into place naturally ?
Brendan It had been 15 years since we last played together, but as soon as we started playing again it was all, like, muscle-memory, for sure.
Joe It certainly didn’t seem to be a case of having forgotten anything. The way we play together was just there waiting to happen again.
Brendan Joe’s like a bass-players’ bass player… he just wants to be a bass player and he doesn’t need, like four million effects going into his bass. He can play it heavy and really lay it down, which is almost a rarity. There’s a lot of bass players who want to be guitar players, so they end-up doing a lot of stuff that just doesn’t sound right. But to play with a bass player who just wants to be a bass player is awesome. It’s a very solid foundation and it allows us to play the way we play. Not everyone I’ve played with allows me to play that way.
I think it’s good that Anthony has come from a very different background and already has his own style, so he’s come to this band as an independent source rather than a musician who might just want to emulate what you two had done in the past…
Joe I think that’s been an advantage of the whole situation. He just liked the way that we play together, which he discovered when we first rehearsed. If it hadn’t turned out that way, I doubt he would have asked us to do anything else with him. That’s really good for us because the last thing we’d want would be somebody who just wanted to play with us because we had been in Fugazi or whatever. Not that something like that would be the end of the world or anything, but it just wouldn’t go anywhere. The person would be satisfied as soon as we played together so they wouldn’t even be looking to do anything else ’
And Joe, you had released three solo albums between 2006 and 2011, as well as playing with various bands and running your own record label, Tolotta…
Joe I think I’d really been waiting to do something else since I made that last album, but I wasn’t inspired to go on and make another record on my own… I think I’d said and done a lot of what I wanted to do and I found that what I was writing wasn’t leading towards any new ground, lyrically. I was writing new music at home but I wasn’t finding that it was something I could really sing on and I realised that what it needed was someone who could really improvise on it. I think that was probably always in the back of mind. I felt that I should be creating a background that other people could come in and play-off. Which is why this band came together so naturally when I moved back to DC. Firstly, I started playing together with Brendan again and then I met Anthony and he was just the kind of person I’d wanted to play with. As for Tolotta, I started moving around too much to be able to make it work. It became too much because we moved several times and it was too difficult to keep moving all of the stock of what I was putting out. So I decided to give all of what was left to the bands and let them sell it for themselves.’
So, to end, I know that you have quite a lot of touring planned for this year. Will you also be working on a new album ?
Joe I think our main intention is to make another album. We already have a ton of ideas for it, but it’s just about having the time to put it together. We have some things recorded that I think will go on the record and we have other things that we’ve left for now, so that we can maybe go back and work on them a bit more. So we do have a lot of things already and hopefully, the new record will be able to come together between these tours. I would hope that will be done sometime this year. There really is no reason why that shouldn’t be
Joe I think I’d really been waiting to do something else since I made that last album, but I wasn’t inspired to go on and make another record on my own… I think I’d said and done a lot of what I wanted to do and I found that what I was writing wasn’t leading towards any new ground, lyrically. I was writing new music at home but I wasn’t finding that it was something I could really sing on and I realised that what it needed was someone who could really improvise on it. I think that was probably always in the back of mind. I felt that I should be creating a background that other people could come in and play-off. Which is why this band came together so naturally when I moved back to DC. Firstly, I started playing together with Brendan again and then I met Anthony and he was just the kind of person I’d wanted to play with. As for Tolotta, I started moving around too much to be able to make it work. It became too much because we moved several times and it was too difficult to keep moving all of the stock of what I was putting out. So I decided to give all of what was left to the bands and let them sell it for themselves.’
So, to end, I know that you have quite a lot of touring planned for this year. Will you also be working on a new album ?
Joe I think our main intention is to make another album. We already have a ton of ideas for it, but it’s just about having the time to put it together. We have some things recorded that I think will go on the record and we have other things that we’ve left for now, so that we can maybe go back and work on them a bit more. So we do have a lot of things already and hopefully, the new record will be able to come together between these tours. I would hope that will be done sometime this year. There really is no reason why that shouldn’t be
The first band, Dealing With Damage, have just started playing their set and we’ve all known front-man Ed for a long time, so we end here and venture upstairs to watch them. It’s a lively start to the evening and while DWD would be the first to admit their influences from the DC punk scene, they add plenty of their own ideas to the mix to keep it interesting (they’ve all been playing in bands for long enough to know what they’re doing.) It’s still early and the place is only starting to fill-up, but the band are grabbing people’s attention as soon as they come in, which is good to see. Finally, to end their set, they play ‘For Want Of’, originally by Brendans’ former band Rites of Spring, and Ed dedicates it to him. The big smile on his face as he stood by the side of the stage was proof-enough that he approved.
Main support this evening are a female duo from Nottingham called Rattles who perform with only drums and vocals, a little like Map 71 from Brighton or The Classical from San Francisco, although Rattles concentrate more on the percussion with the vocals remaining less prominent and not integral to every song. In fact, it’s an instrumental piece towards the end of their set that works best for me, creating hypnotic rhythms that veer towards vintage Krautrock. The set maybe didn’t work as well as it could have as their more downbeat sound didn’t really build on the momentum that Dealing With Damage had initially set, but they were certainly intriguing.
By the time the Messthetics take to the stage, the venue is pretty full-up and there’s a good aymosphere. Much that I’d enjoyed seeing them supporting Michael Rother a few weeks ago, that venue was much bigger, seated and only half-full while they were playing so, even though they had a good response, the place was a little too sparse for the performance to be as effective as it could have been. Tonight, the audience is clearly keen to see them and there’s a lot of anticipation as they start the set. As before, this is music that works so much more effectively when you see them live. Obviously, the volume creates part of that, but it’s also that you can watch the interaction between the players and see what’s going on. Adding that factor is what really makes up for the lack of vocals or a front-man. Instead of seeking out the usual focal point, you find yourself paying attention to the way the music comes together. It’s very emotive and also highly effective.
If you were unable to catch the Messthetics during this recent tour, I hope you will be able to do so very soon. Be careful not to be put-off by reviews referring to ‘jazz’ or ‘avant-garde’ leanings as, although these are certainly a part of what the band are playing, the total sum is something much more than that and will be appealing to a broader audience than specific genres might suggest. Be sure to listen with open ears !
Main support this evening are a female duo from Nottingham called Rattles who perform with only drums and vocals, a little like Map 71 from Brighton or The Classical from San Francisco, although Rattles concentrate more on the percussion with the vocals remaining less prominent and not integral to every song. In fact, it’s an instrumental piece towards the end of their set that works best for me, creating hypnotic rhythms that veer towards vintage Krautrock. The set maybe didn’t work as well as it could have as their more downbeat sound didn’t really build on the momentum that Dealing With Damage had initially set, but they were certainly intriguing.
By the time the Messthetics take to the stage, the venue is pretty full-up and there’s a good aymosphere. Much that I’d enjoyed seeing them supporting Michael Rother a few weeks ago, that venue was much bigger, seated and only half-full while they were playing so, even though they had a good response, the place was a little too sparse for the performance to be as effective as it could have been. Tonight, the audience is clearly keen to see them and there’s a lot of anticipation as they start the set. As before, this is music that works so much more effectively when you see them live. Obviously, the volume creates part of that, but it’s also that you can watch the interaction between the players and see what’s going on. Adding that factor is what really makes up for the lack of vocals or a front-man. Instead of seeking out the usual focal point, you find yourself paying attention to the way the music comes together. It’s very emotive and also highly effective.
If you were unable to catch the Messthetics during this recent tour, I hope you will be able to do so very soon. Be careful not to be put-off by reviews referring to ‘jazz’ or ‘avant-garde’ leanings as, although these are certainly a part of what the band are playing, the total sum is something much more than that and will be appealing to a broader audience than specific genres might suggest. Be sure to listen with open ears !
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