HW: Litmus Gig

[Jon Jarrett]

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005, Colin J Allen wrote:

> Thursday 30th June
>
> The Man on the Moon
> Cambridge
>
> Support from:
> Mr Zed
> The Khe Sanh Approach.

        Of course I was there, among far too few other people, and late
last night I wrote as follows.

        "First band on were playing as I arrived, reversing with what
turned out to be horrible injustice the billed support order. The band who
should have been second and were first were Mr Zed, whose name I had seen
on a blackboard here while passing some nonths before and I was intrigued
to encounter this apparently Cambridge space-rock band. I'm not sure they
are space-rock really, but what they are is like really early festival
jambands like Here'n'Now, or like the live half of Floyd's _Ummagumma_ at
about twice the speed. Very able and interesting bass player; very lively
and fast drummer, though not so perfect with timing; nonetheless the two
worked very well together. Guitarist and singer making max use of effects
on both these noises. A great deal of wah and flanger on the guitar, and
some quality strange noises from both him and the keyboardist/howler.
Nonetheless, the top end didn't meet the bottom a lot of the the time and
though they were unquestionably making the big psychedelic noise, and good
on 'em for it, they were doing so in what was either a tiresomely or a
charmingly amateur way. I'd see them again though.

        "The band who should have been first were The Khe Sanh Approach.
There is a notional list of bands who were the worst acts I've seen, most
of whom I've managed to forget, but this lot are on it now. Sixth-form
College students, I'm guessing, mainly the work of a singer and
keyboardist who was unable to decide between Iggy Pop and Jarvis Cocker
for his image but had the talent of neither. Drums all sequenced; bass
could have been too except for a few moments of liveliness, and the two
guitarists didn't really differentiate or add anything until the three
minutes of scorching feedback which closed their thankfully short set and
was by far the best noise the band produced.

        "Litmus, playing to a tiny crowd, took a while to warm up, and
sounded vocally shot, with the keyboard (actual keyboard, rather than
synth, sequencers, theremins, etc.) parts again lost in the otherwise good
mix. Intense lights in this small venue, and very loud; smoke machines the
final ingredient in a cauldron of high-energy audio alteration. By the
time they finished, playing like demons and impossible to stay still
to; just a pity it wasn't like that from the get-go.

        "Tracklist: Intro/ ?The Projection/ Destroy the Mothership/ The
Tempest/ You Are Here/ Sonic Light/ Under the Sign/ Infinity Drive/
Twinstar. No encore. `Projection', if that's its name, is new and
seemingly not quite finished, but has a good core; `Mothership' stood out
for its usual intensity and attack; `Tempest' was lots shorter than usual
and is still looking for a direction unfortunately. Not a happily-
completed song this one. Electric version of `You Are Here' new to me, a
free break after the verse which really signalled the beginning of the
performance. After that, no looking back. Top band. Nice to see them
good as I always hope they'll be."

        Yours all,
                   Jon

--
    Jonathan Jarrett    "There is scarce any tradition or popular error
    Birkbeck College     but stands also delivered by some good author."
        London         (Sir Thomas Browne, "Pseudodoxia Epidemica", 1646)