Two bands, also from Boise, Idaho, opened for them, which made the night quite long but always interesting. Finn Riggins, the first band, was like experiencing a nervous breakdown on stage with fast running repetitive cyclic instrumentals, which sounded at times like a fast car trip, or duetting wandering voices accompanied by a bouncing keyboard and some hypnotic sounds which were incorporating what it seemed to be jazz elements. The result was weird and intriguing at the same time.
Then ReVoLtReVoLt, the second trio of the night, performed a tight and muscular set of post punk songs with mood swings and jumps of anger, almost Pixies-esque at times and some aggressive rhythms à la Queens of the Stone Age.
Then, the dense, full atmospheric sound of Built to Spill filled very fast the El Rey space, with their typical long but never boring jam sessions, stretching the structure of their songs, each guitar building layer by layer a full and thick sonic universe.
They opened with ‘Traces’ from their previous album ‘You in reverse’, providing a good example of this, Martsch’s chiming guitar dueling with Brett Netson’s and exploding in a fierce battle, wandering away from the melody, opening more space, going deeper, higher, further, faster, adding layers and layers of guitars, turning the song into an hypnotic jamming tumult, to finally fading away after a very long detour. But they never forgot about the melody, as Martsch’s clear voice, and songs like ‘Hindsight’ with its comforting and cyclic melody, were there to remind us about it.
As I said the five guys from Boise could not care less about the glamour aspect of the spectacle, since they took their time between the songs, wiping out the sweat from their forehead, adjusting their guitars and not giving a second thought about letting down the energy they have produced; they didn’t have to work hard to rebuild it anyway when they started playing again.
Dough Martsch had always had a humble presence on stage, but a quite unique way to move while playing, nervously agitating his right leg, his whole body affected by some strange muscle spasms following the rhythms of his music.
Curiously, they only played four songs from their last album ‘There is no enemy’ and dug deep in their catalogue with a heavy representation from their 1999 ‘Keep it like a secret’, their 1994 ‘There’s nothing wrong with love’ and even a song from their 1997 ‘Perfect from now on’. They did not seem to have a setlist on the floor, very early in the show, people were shouting requests they wanted them to play, and despite the fact that the girl behind me asked a million times for ‘Car’, they never played it; but I think she was not shouting loud enough. The crowd was exhilarating at the first riffs of the infectiously hooked ‘Distopian dream girl’, or the bright ‘Else’ with its mysterious lyrics ‘Finally I don’t mind/Worthless tries at finding something else’ and its unique tubular guitar effect which hit right on this happy place in my brain.
On songs like ‘The Plan’, or ‘Planting seeds’ (among many others), the monster they produced during their long instrumental parts was divagating away from the song and if they gave at times the impression that each of them was escaping on his own side, with some smashing riffs from Netson’s guitar, and crystalline ones from Martsch’s, they were always miraculous landing altogether. They were alternating quiet songs like ‘Things fall apart’ during which someone from the other band came on stage to perform the trumpet solo, with wild ones like the mad ride of ‘Joyride’, or the fast and violent thunderstorm of sounds ‘Pat’.
Doug Martsch came back on stage alone for the first part of the encore performing two acoustic songs from his solo album that I did not know, but which was demonstrating what it seemed very intricate and complex bluesy guitar arrangements. Then he was joined once again on stage by the full band to perform 4 more songs, and especially the beloved ‘Twin Falls’ that engaged the crowd into a sing-along. They did not end there, as an electrifying and colossal ‘Broken Chairs’ with Pink Floydish heavy and windy guitars closed the show, releasing, in a monumental and epic effort, all the possible energy still left over, and letting the sound of their guitars reverberate for some time.
Setlist:
Traces
Stab
Hindsight
Distopian Dream Girl
The Plan
Life’s A Dream
I Would Hurt a Fly
Planting Seeds
Else
The Wait
Joyride
Things Fall Apart
Pat
Carry The Zero
Encore
Dream (Doug Martsch solo)
Offer (Doug Martsch solo)
Time Trap
Twin Falls
Some
Broken Chairs