I remember being so impressed when I heard my first post rock song – “Sleep” by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It changed my musical life and brought a whole new perspective on listening. Music was more than just a 3 piece band and a vocalist. This new genre was an exciting and uncharted area for me to explore. I remember being swept away from other bands that either partly or fully dabbled in the genre. Over the last ten years or so, the idea of instrumental rock music has gone slightly in the direction that the term “post rock” was kind of considered dirty
Despite the feeling towards this type of recorded music, it still delivers a dramatic and rewarding experience in the live sense. So, a night at the East Brunswick was hard to resist. Especially as it was going to be album launch of ‘…And So We Destroyed Everything” by Sleepmakeswaves and a showcase of amazing instrumental sounds of various types
I entered the venue halfway during Lunaire’s set and unfortunately couldn’t get to enjoy them that much due to a phone call. From the ten minutes I did hear, the band sounded powerful enough and while the members of the band all looked really young and eager, there certainly seemed to an acknowledgment of this craft of constructing a emotional instrumental.
They casually walked onto the stage, but These Hands Could Seperate The Sky had an aura about them which felt powerful. We could not only feel the music, but we could feel it too. A good mix could be partly attributed to that, but was really amazing to see such enigmatic sound played in such a careful, measured manner. It was lovely stuff that captured what the night was all about.
This Is Your Captain Speaking were simply special. Why were they special? It’s many things. Their music is complex and nuanced. It is subtle and full of texture. It can be powerful at times, but most of all it can be downright beautiful. Their music has a strong and deep emotional pull which wasn’t overbearing. They had elements that separate the merely good from the truly great. They only played three songs in their 45 minutes, but they sure were great tunes giving us a massive ride through crescendos and languid moments. Playing songs from their debut 2005 album ’Storyboard’, we rode the timid washes of soundscapes. ‘Lift’ was the highlight of a beautiful set.
Sleepmakeswaves were more out there with their set as opposed to This Is Your Captain Speaking. They came full force with a rhythmic driven set of sounds that swelled with so much intricacy that it was difficult to be distracted. They demanded your attention with songs like ‘Keep Your Splendid Silent Sun’ moving from repeated melodies to full blown noise assaults. Every member of the band seemed to be stunned that such a huge turnout came to see them, and you could see it on their faces. They all really seemed excited to play up on the East Brunswick stage and the genuinely shone through from the whole band. The absolute highlight was the stunningly gorgeous ‘(Hello) Cloud Mountain’. The slew of harmonic sounds from the guitars just gelled together perfectly. It all just lead into this full, stupendous, deep emotional rush of feeling. This was truly superb. All the instruments could be heard clearly in the mix which is so important with a loud sound like this.
The whole night made a really strong connection. The musicality was probably the key ingredient in all this. A big congrats to all the bands tonight, because they all displayed a musical range from mournful to ecstatic and back again. Something that I haven’t seen or heard in a live space for a bit of a while. It was a great night of intelligent and meaningful music, and hardly a note was sung.
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