Flashing bright lights, strange echoing noises, human-like figures emerging from the shadows… surely it’s close encounters of an indie kind?
Actually it’s a distressingly normal Wednesday evening in Portsmouth, but for tonight’s gig, (or ‘An Evening with Secret Machines’ as it’s rather pompously titled), there is definitely something otherworldly going on.
What emerges from the Dallas three-piece is huge space rock, sounding like Spaceman 3 with a rocket up its arse, blasting off to Planet Prog. New record ‘Ten Silver Drops’ reveals a less rocky direction than before, as on opener ‘Alone, Jealous And Stoned’ which is indicative of a new pulsing, groove based sound.
For those revisiting the band following a Gallagher approved support slot, the bigger bangs of ‘Road Leads Where It’s Lead’ and the eternally swaggering ‘Sad And Lonely’, shows the band can still excel at rock as well as spacey atmospherics.
Not entirely out of this world - mainly due to an icy lack of human contact - but definitely enough for us mortals to lose ourselves in after during nights probing.
Spot on.
I felt when I saw them they really didn't want anything to do with their fans. They didn't talk to us at all, apart from saying:
'Yeah so, last time we were in Manchester, Keane opened for us... Keane, anybody?'
'BOOOOO!!!'
Can't speak for this performance but...
The last two times I saw this band they were positively transcendent. I think that whether they like it or not, they will be dropped from their label and forced to go indie...but it will be for the best. On a much smaller scale, the same thing is happening to them that happened to Nirvana. About half the people coming to their shows are there for the music and actually get it, and the other half are there for some other reason, usually because some magazine told them they are a "hot band" or because (as is often the case with dumb kids) they simply got lost.
The show the Secret Machines gave Austin at SXSW really could not have been better unless they had played even longer. But the audience...my God. It truly speaks to the Secret Machines' abilities to create an atmosphere and maintain it that I was able to tune out the fact that I was surrounded by dolts. Whoever set up the SM's gear took maybe ten minutes (this after a painfully long set by some DJ that no one wanted to see) and did a half-ass job. So the band goes on stage and the guitar, of all things, cannot be heard by anyone. And the audience's response while this technical problem is being worked out? "JUST DO IT MAN!!! DO IT!!" I kid you not. The girl beside my girlfriend: "Why does it say 'Secret Machines' on the drum?"
Luckily, the delay meant the show would run very late (that and the fact that the band treated us to a set that was longer than most of the other SXSW shows) and that weeded out the pretenders. By the end, the place was maybe half full. Good riddance. And by the way, the fact that the band doesn't talk much doesn't mean they don't love you. They are all about transport and experience...and that means not focusing on 3 dudes.
I can't wait until the next time I go to see Interpol. I hope it's just like last time and I get to hear some genius saying the band sucks because "they don't move enough."
Same thing...
Happened at Reading in 2004, couldn't hear the guitar what-so-ever. :(
I was there
on Monday at the Liverpool show and my god was it fantastic. They seemed to talk to the audience quite a lot compared to what I've heard. And I shook the hand of God (also known as Brandon Curtis).
"Hello Cleveland"
Personally, I usually cringe when bands dpeak to their audience all the time. So this doesn't bother me one whit about SM.
Saw them for the fifth time last night (in Glasgow) and I can confidently say that over the last couple of years or so their live show has just improved to the point where it couldn't get any more explosive. I took my niece (who is 18 and rapidly growing out of Killers and Kaiser Chiefs) and she could barely speak afterwards. The last half hour was spellbinding.
And incidentally, they said thank you twice and towards the end "it's been a pleasure to be here tonight". So there.