I have yet to see Portishead live but I have seen Beak> twice, the other Geoff Barrow’s band, so what does this make me? A fan of Krautrock music? Because there was a lot of this, as the English trio from Bristol installed groove after groove at the Echoplex on a Tuesday night.
‘We have played in LA before but nobody came!’ said Barrow, looking around and seeing a full house, the crowd responded by some screams of protestation, but it was one of the few times when you could hear people, as everyone was listening very religiously, some of the people around me entering the grooves very deeply, with body shaking and head banging. Barrow noticed and complimented us with a ‘You guys are a really quiet audience, but in a good way’ and even bashed the crowd in Philadelphia, where they had just played, because people over there chatted the whole time, … that’s really a shame Philly, Beak> have only 4 dates in the US, and you were one of them!
Geoff Barrow was at the drums most of the time, but he occasionally switched place with Matt Williams, who seemed to have a blast behind the keyboard, vibrating and buzzing experimental sidereal swirls, sometimes transforming his synth into a vampire-sinister reverb organ, or even picking up a powerful and electrifying guitar for some songs like the Mogwai-esque ‘Blagdon Lake’. Meanwhile, Billy Fuller was sitting at the center with his hypnotic throbbing bass conversing with a pulsating vibe and reverb vocals by Barrow, so distant they seemed to be drowning into this blurry mix of electronics, bass and drums. They had just started with ‘The Gaol’ off their 2012 self-titled album that I smelt a strong odor,… their dark and repetitive music, which may just sound like some weird ritual at times, had hardly begun that some people in the crowd were having their own private one.
The music was at times curious, often unexpected, but always intensively rhythmic, waking up some ancient medieval rites like in the bewitching ‘Wulfstan II’ pouring ghostly vocals, violent electric guitar explosions dialoguing with a sinister pulsing dance.
Dark and bleak? May be but there was nothing sinister about the trio’s dynamism on stage and their funny interaction with each other and the crowd. Barrow introduced ‘Mono’ as their ‘huge single’ and they even made a fake exit, Barrow explaining that this tenth song would be their pretend last song, they would pretend to walk off stage and came back… but he added they may really walk off because he needed to piss,… and I realized afterward that it couldn’t be a coincidence if this droning atmospheric tenth tune was called ‘Kidney’.
They ‘came’ back and Barrow announced they would just play two more songs, trying to excuse himself and adding, ‘We’re not the Foo Fighters,’… then looking a little tired, ‘I wish I was’,… We are the Flu Fighters!’ replied Fuller, and the whole room was laughing very hard. And these sonic fighters closed their set with the lead track of their 2009 album, 'Iron Acton', one of their minimalist numbers that makes you enjoy the journey over the destination.
Setlist
The gaol
Yatton
Eggdog
Spinning top
Kenn
Blagdon Lake
Mono
Wulfstan II
Elevator
Kidney
Deserters
Iron Acton