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zoo_music_girlOn Saturday I went to see Neurosis with Jarboe. I was a bit disappointed really. I'd downloaded loads of Neurosis stuff from Emusic so I had an idea what to expect, and the CD they recorded together had arrived on Wednesday so I'd had plenty of time to listen to that too. I love the Neurosis/Jarboe CD. Neurosis alone are a bit plodding for me, kind of prog rock for the 21st century, but Jarboe's vocals add a whole new dimension to the work and I was very much looking forward to the gig.
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augeas and I found a spot at the foot of the stairs to the balcony, elevated above the main crowd but still pretty close to the front, so we had a good view although it was very much off to one side.
Neurosis were supposed to come on at 8.30pm, there being no support, but in the end they ambled onstage at 9pm to a minimum of fuss and remarkably low key audience reaction. They faffed about for a few minutes but the start of the performance proper seemed to be signalled by the filmshow in the background starting. Forty minutes of music to nod your head to later (it was amusing to watch the main crowd nodding in time) andaugeas decided to give up on them and go home. Ten minutes later Jarboe came on, no introduction (actually nobody on stage said a word during the whole gig), no fanfare, just a roadie quietly setting up a microphone for her during the previous song.
She was great. Looking not of this world in lank black hair and a strappy black linen dress with pale, luminous skin, she was every bit the cult figure and star that the five dull blokes behind her could never be, and her voice was wonderful. The sound wasn't good though, and the bloody awful audience nearly drowned her out during the quiet bits. They did three or four songs (Within, His Last Words and another one or two I couldn't identify from the few listens I'd had) from the Neurosis and Jarboe album and then a cover of Patti Smith's "Easter", which seemed odd to me. It was a very competent cover, but didn't really suit Jarboe's voice, and given her incredible vocal range seemed a bit of a waste of her voice.
Jarboe left the stage with the same lack of fuss she'd entered it, and a roadie came on and took her microphone away. I stayed for one more song (I should point out that the average Neurosis song is about 8 minutes) and then decided that it was probably unlikely she'd be back and that I couldn't stand through another thirty minutes of Neurosis so I left.
I would love to see Jarboe again, but next time I hope it's a Jarboe show, which a Jarboe audience, instead of the bizarre crowd on Saturday, who were entirely unresponsive and unenthusiatic, and often stunningly ignorant, like the Spanish or Italian group standing behind me who kept shouting to each other. It was Neurosis' only European show and I got the impression that the large amounts of people with foreign accents wasn't just London's diverse mix, but who comes all the way from Spain to behave like that at a gig?
Reading The Living Jarboe, it sounds like the lady herself had a good experience though, so perhaps I was just standing in the wrong place.
augeas and I found a spot at the foot of the stairs to the balcony, elevated above the main crowd but still pretty close to the front, so we had a good view although it was very much off to one side.Neurosis were supposed to come on at 8.30pm, there being no support, but in the end they ambled onstage at 9pm to a minimum of fuss and remarkably low key audience reaction. They faffed about for a few minutes but the start of the performance proper seemed to be signalled by the filmshow in the background starting. Forty minutes of music to nod your head to later (it was amusing to watch the main crowd nodding in time) and
augeas decided to give up on them and go home. Ten minutes later Jarboe came on, no introduction (actually nobody on stage said a word during the whole gig), no fanfare, just a roadie quietly setting up a microphone for her during the previous song. She was great. Looking not of this world in lank black hair and a strappy black linen dress with pale, luminous skin, she was every bit the cult figure and star that the five dull blokes behind her could never be, and her voice was wonderful. The sound wasn't good though, and the bloody awful audience nearly drowned her out during the quiet bits. They did three or four songs (Within, His Last Words and another one or two I couldn't identify from the few listens I'd had) from the Neurosis and Jarboe album and then a cover of Patti Smith's "Easter", which seemed odd to me. It was a very competent cover, but didn't really suit Jarboe's voice, and given her incredible vocal range seemed a bit of a waste of her voice.
Jarboe left the stage with the same lack of fuss she'd entered it, and a roadie came on and took her microphone away. I stayed for one more song (I should point out that the average Neurosis song is about 8 minutes) and then decided that it was probably unlikely she'd be back and that I couldn't stand through another thirty minutes of Neurosis so I left.
I would love to see Jarboe again, but next time I hope it's a Jarboe show, which a Jarboe audience, instead of the bizarre crowd on Saturday, who were entirely unresponsive and unenthusiatic, and often stunningly ignorant, like the Spanish or Italian group standing behind me who kept shouting to each other. It was Neurosis' only European show and I got the impression that the large amounts of people with foreign accents wasn't just London's diverse mix, but who comes all the way from Spain to behave like that at a gig?
Reading The Living Jarboe, it sounds like the lady herself had a good experience though, so perhaps I was just standing in the wrong place.