The Angels of Light
Friday 11/30/01, Emo's Austin, TX
Saturday 12/1/01, The Green Door Oklahoma City, OKWhat a year. It's not often that you get to see your 3 favorite singer/songwriters live within a few months. First Chris Connelly, then Mark Eitzel, and now Michael Gira with his Angels of Light. This makes the 5th and 6th times I've seen The Angels live since their debut tour in '99 and the 12th and 13th times total that I've seen Gira live including SWANS shows from '95 and '97 ...
The sign on the door at Emo's said it was $5 for 21 and over, but the door guy let me in for free for whatever reason. Unfortunately, Emo's had 2 shows going on simultaneously this particular night. The small inside stage was for The Angels and the bigger outside stage (where I froze my ass off being pummeled by SWANS in Jan of '97) had an emo 3-fer with Dashboard Confessional as the headliner. I watched a few songs by the openers and it really sucked. I just don't get the appeal of "emo" ...
The opening band was Vietnam, whom I could hear but not see (they were set up in front of the stage) from my seat at the bar. They couldn't motivate me to leave the bar ...
Virgil Shaw was next. Virgil's an odd guy, probably mid '30s with short hair and mustache, brown jacket and jeans and New Balance tennis shoes that stuck out like a sore thumb. He's your goofy uncle or local K-Mart assistant manager. He sings and fingerpicks/slaps acoustic electric guitar while another guy drums and simultaneously plays some vibes or trumpet. Virgil does a country/folk/bluegrass-ish sort of thang but he rocks it out. He plays standing and is very animated: head banging, eyes closed intently, very sudden motions with the guitar neck and likes to holler within songs. His voice and stage presence put me off at first. About 3 songs in I'm acclimated. Another song or two I'm starting to like it. One lyric really amused me and stayed with me: "it feels good, just like chopping wood". More on Virgil later ...
The Angels were next. Gira looked smart in his usual fedora, gray dress jacket and pants and cowboy boots. He was playing a black Guild acoustic/electric. Thor was to his left on drums, percussion, vibes, piano, dulcimer and autoharp, Dana to his right on bass, keys, melodica and Larry behind him to the right on organ, vibes and drums. All three did backing vocals. They began at 12:40. The set:
Evangeline
What Will Come (new)
Nations (new)
My Suicide
All Souls' Rising
New York Girls
The Rose of Los Angeles (new)
What You Were
On The Mountain
Goddamn the Sunencore
Failure
Two WomenUnsurprisingly, there were plenty of new songs and new versions of songs, such as "All Souls' Rising", "What You Were" and "On The Mountain" from Gira's solo/acoustic CD. They were all great, especially "Nations" with its memorable, mounting groove. "All Souls' Rising" gradually became the most massive wall of sound and the most violent song of the set. Gira was talkative, chain smoked and sipped on a shot and a Shiner Rock. He was fighting a runny nose and once his roll of toilet paper ran out, he requested napkins and the crowd up front responded with many. He introduced the titles of "What Will Come", "Nations" and "The Rose.." before they played them. In-between songs he asked "is anyone a fan of John Wayne? The band not the actor. I want to be their guitar roadie". After one song he said "that song is about a dead mother of mine" then glanced at Thor and they both chuckled a little. About mid-set he introduced the band and I shall paraphrase: "that's Thor. He's from where you are. He's cute but hairy. That's Dana. She's from New York. We call her 'Mom'. That's Larry. He's from Tennessee and we call him 'Cracker'". They all smiled and laughed a bit after their introductions. Gira said that "Goddamn the Sun" would be the final song but the crowd's response afterwards (egged on by Gira motioning for us to be louder) kept them on-stage. During "Failure" Gira was thankfully oblivious to 3 objects (lit cigarettes?) that were thrown at him, but missed, as he played. The beautiful "Two Women" wrapped things up nicely at 2:10 am ...
The Angels played well, but there were issues with the sound and general 'vibe' of the room. With the throngs of people coming and going in and out, to the rest rooms, at and to the bar, and even the people nearby me talking, it made for much, much too much ambient noise during the show. I was standing about 10 feet from Gira and during many of the quieter parts I had to struggle to hear them. They needed more volume, period. There were times when Dana/Thor/Larry were doing backing vocals and/or Thor was playing autoharp or dulcimer and I couldn't hear any of it in the mix. The band was, of course, very focused, tight and physical. It's amazing to watch Thor and Larry play percussion and other instruments simultaneously. Dana is a very lovely young lady and makes the most intriguing face when deeply involved in a bass line. She being the lone feminine beacon of light on stage, my lonely heterosexual eyes were drawn to her most. Gira did what he usually does, losing himself in the songs, but he never *really* lost it like I've always seem him do in the past. I left a little disappointed afterwards as the set list and performance didn't weren't as dynamic and devastating as the '99 tour, the Austin show in particular. But it's the venue and a big chunk of the crowd, who weren't there to see them, who were most to blame ...
The following night was Oklahoma City. It's *always* a bad sign when you get to the venue before the band. Virgil showed up even later, looking flustered. The openers were The Shells. They're a young duo from Dallas, a male on vocals and electric guitar and a female on Farfisa organ and (mostly backing) vocals. Their music was very cute, quaint and quiet. It felt to me more like we were intruding on a private practice than watching a performance. They did seem to enjoy themselves quite a bit, giggling and smiling at one another and chatting in-between songs, pretty oblivious to the crowd. The female in particular was fascinating to watch as she was very timid, making all sorts of funny faces as though she seemed surprised by what she and her partner were playing. The one song where she took over the lead vocals was by far my favorite. But, I tired pretty quickly of her organ sound and then all of it in general. Gira calmly smoked and watched, cross-legged from a chair next to the merchandise table, intermittently chatting with fans ...
Virgil set up quickly. I heard Gira yell his name as he passed by and then he told him something, probably that he needed to do a shorter set. Virgil mentioned early on that the venue said 'punk rock' on the front and he seemed to be worried by that. He played the same set as the night before, minus 2 or 3 songs, and although he/they played and sounded just as good, he wasn't as into it as the night before. No smiles tonight and very little talk. I realized about mid-set that within 24 hours I'd gone from not liking Virgil at all to loving him, a common occurrence for me when given enough exposure to anything remotely good. I also realized that these songs were fusing with my DNA and that I must own the CDs. I went to the merchandise table as The Angels set up and talked to Virgil some as I bought all of the CDs he had for sale. I said "great show", he said "thanks, I took the punk rock approach tonight", I said "yeah, it worked" and he laughed heartily. I highly recommend his "Quad Cities" disc, and the Dieselhed "Shallow Water Blackout" ain't too shabby either ...
The Angels began about 1 am. They started playing "Evangeline" and were probably a minute in before the sound guy killed the PA music. When Gira began to sing, the mike was off and he angrily yelled "no vocals!" and glared icily toward the sound desk in the back. Yikes. Not a good way to start. Larry's organ was fried, making all sorts of disruptive, distorted click/pop sounds whenever he tried to play it. They couldn't figure out what was wrong with it after the song. Gira's guitar had some feedback hum on one song. In-between songs he complained some about the monitor levels and lack of light on stage but soldiered on. Those minor technical issues aside, the sound of the venue and band were amazing and the 'vibe' perfectly intimate. During quiet parts of the song, the crowd (which I thought was surprisingly large for OKC) were perfectly reverent in total silence, clapping like mad at the end of each song. Thank you! This captive audience obviously fueled the band's performance. During the "I hate you all for what I've become.." lines of "My Suicide", I vividly remember Gira opening his eyes and staring intently across the crowd. "Nations" raged, only to be eclipsed by "All Souls' Rising". This is when Gira became the possessed man I've become accustomed to witnessing: eyes closed, head bobbing around and mouth moving as though he's chewing an imaginary cud, yelling off mike, reeling in his stool and strumming hand slamming the guitar to the point of drawing blood. It was at this point that I realized there's nothing wrong with the set list whatsoever. Gira isn't talkative tonight, other than a few 'thank you's, and offers no titles to new songs. During "New York Girls" he yelled for Dana several times, apparently unhappy with something she was or wasn't doing, though I couldn't tell what that was and she seemed as puzzled as me. At about five minutes 'til 2 am, the lights came on in the back and Gira, looking puzzled, asked "what's this?" A guy from the club said they could do only one more. Gira said he had 8 more, another 45 minutes worth. He begrudgingly chose "Goddamn the Sun" and was obviously thrown off by the turn of events, having to stop the song a little ways in when he realized he was in the wrong tuning. After that one, they said they could do another one, so he began "Two Women". About a minute in, the merchandise woman Karin went up to Gira, touched his leg to get his attention and gave him the cut throat signal because they had to stop immediately. It was 2 am and the bar was closed and they had to get us out of there. Gira was none too pleased and apologized, the mikes being shut off before he could even finish doing so. What a shame. The hour that we got was amazing, despite the technical hiccups, and I imagine it was only going to get better. The aborted set list:
Evangeline
What Will Come
Nations
My Suicide
All Souls' Rising
New York Girls
Goddamn the Sun
Two Women (only the first minute or so)The club herded us all out very quick, so I didn't get a chance to return to the merchandise table as I'd planned to for some knife logo panties and matching t-shirt (many of the Young God releases were also available). Oh well, there's always the web site. I hope The Angels consider having only one opening act or getting started at a more reasonable time to avoid this problem in the future. So, between these 2 shows and weeding out the bad things about each, I feel as though I got 1 really good one. If real life permits, I'll hopefully be enjoying an all you can eat Chinese buffet at the Double Dragon in Kansas City as I watch The Angels one more time. I'll never be able to get enough. Live Angels, that is ...
Remaining tour dates:
Fri 12/7 - Portland, OR - Berbatis Pan
Sat 12/8 - Seattle, WA - Graceland
Sun 12/9 - Vancouver, BC - Picadilly
Tue 12/11 - Denver, CO - 15th Street Tavern
Thu 12/13 - Kansas City, MO - Double Dragon
Fri 12/14 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
Sat 12/15 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
Sun 12/16 - Toronto, ONT - Lee's Palace
Mon 12/17 - Montreal, QBC - La Sala Rossa
Tue 12/18 - Cambridge, MA - Middle East (downstairs)
Thu 12/20 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom