Earth + Black Spirituals + Don Mcgreevy & Rogier Smal Duo @ The Oobleck, 21st February 2015

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The Oobleck in Birmingham’s Custard Factory plays host to the ‘Godfathers of Drone ‘, Earth , as they return to UK to support their biggest selling album in their 20 year plus history ‘Primitive & Deadly’.  This title is very apt for tonight’s performance as the headliners get back to a primitive minimalist three piece line up, and deadly in respect that they destroyed two Marshall Amps in the process.

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Unfortunately I missed the first support act the Don Mcgreevy and Rogier Smal Duo’ as I was interviewing Dylan Carlson, Earths guitarist and founder member, for the website — so look out for this article.  But I did speak to Rogier on the phone as he is acting as the tour manager; also Don is on double duty as he will play Bass for the headliners later tonight.  This tour is a real DIY family affair.

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When I get into the venue after my meeting with Dylan the Black Spirituals are on stage in mid flow.  They are an improvisational duo from Oakland US.  At one point in the set Zachary James Watkins, who plays guitar and other electronic devices, makes reference to where they are from as he noticed an abundance of ‘Sleep’ band T-shirts in the audience.  It was hard to make out what he was saying as he didn’t have a mic — but it sounded like he was inferring that they live close to them back in the US.

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As the set progressed drummer and percussionist Marshall Trammel started building up jazz rhythms and patterns on his kit and on occasions breaking into regular rock form.  Watkins uses his guitar, effect pedals and electronic to make a soundscape of noise and feedback.  As this builds to a crescendo Trammel bites a drumstick between his teeth and looks like a man possessed.  The effect of their output is really hypnotic and they are engrossing to watch.  When they finish their set the room is woken from their induced trance and give this duo a well received ovation. As this is a DIY style tour, there are no roadies or crew to set up for the main act — it is the band themselves.  Which in some respect is humbling and great to see, but for the artists if anything goes wrong they are on their own.  So be warned.

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When the band is ready to start Dylan steps up to the mic and announces “I don’t know what day it is, but hello Birmingham!”   He then raises his hand to give the heavy metal hail Satan horn salute to the crowd and begins the set with ‘Badgers Bain’ followed by ‘Even Hell Has its Heroes’.  If you are unfamiliar with Earths style, they are a minimalist instrumentalist heavy rock group.  The term drone gets thrown around as a genre, as they are known to let chords ring out with little deviation.  On the new album tracks and in tonight’s performance this is less evident.  Drummer Adrienne Davies style is slow, heavy and methodical.  Each beat send reverberations across the venue, but what is amazing is that the gaps and lengthy pauses in the drumming feel even more powerful than the beats.

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As they play the title track from their 5th studio album ‘Bees Made Honey in the Lions Skull’, Dylan raises his guitar aloft as he lets the chords ring.  This gets too much for his amp and it blows!  The band stops and rally around the side of the stage and find a substitute amp to use.  During this unscheduled break bass player Don McGreevy adlibs a little ditty.  “That’s why we bring spares guys” reassures Carlson as they get set to pick up exactly where they left off.

The new album has tracks with vocals on, but for tonight they are all performed as instrumentals.  The track ‘There is a Serpent Coming’ is given a new dimension without Mark Lanegans vocals.  It turns out from my interview that this is Dylan’s favourite track from the album and he finds himself wanting to listen to it over and over.  Dylan takes a break in the performance to thank all the Earth fans in making their new album their biggest selling of all time.  It has out sold the combined amount sales of all of Earths albums, an amazing achievement considering the bands 20 plus year existence.

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They then go back to one of their first songs in their history ‘Ouroboros is Broken’ which now has a new and improved intro.  Again the heavy droning riffs are too much for the amp and it blows.  There is a longer break as they try to find a third amp to finish the set.   Once this is sorted they continue totally un-phased by the incident — maybe this sort of thing is common place for one of the heaviest bands in the world.  The new amp is then tested with the amazing ‘Torn by the Fox of the Crescent Moon’ and it holds out.

The band opt to do a mock encore by staying on stage, as they have been backwards and forwards quite a lot tonight shifting equipment around.  For the encore they play ‘From the Zodiacal Light’.  Dylan thanks the audience stating that if it weren’t for Earth and the support from the fans Adrienne would be living at home with cats and he would be in jail somewhere.

Earths performance was quality and they handled all of the night’s technical difficulties like true professionals.   Let’s hope they have enough Marshall Amps to get them through the rest of the tour.

Set list

Badgers Bane

Even Hell Has its Heroes

Bees Made Honey in the Lions Skull

There is a Serpent Coming

Old Black

Ouroboros is Broken

Torn by the Fox of the Crescent Moon

From the Zodiacal Light’

 

Review:  Sean McBurney

Photographs: Steve Kilmister

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