Rolled down to Fishtown for this one and met up with Mr. The Twin Atlas and Miss and Mrs Amanda Jones for pints and food before hand. Clutch parking directly across the street from Johnny Brenda's and a table was acquired inside. A few Victory Stouts and lots of babble (check out Harry Crews!) later we headed upstairs, alas, we missed the beginning of Ghost's set. A strangely semi full but not packed Friday night show. We headed to the balcony for more beers and a better view. Not sure what exactly we missed, but when we rolled in things were a little haphazard/not clicking. That said, by the time I finished my pint there were taking off quite well mainly thanks to Kurihara's subtle colorings and then over the top lightning bolt leads. Seriously, the best modern psychedelic guitarist? Perhaps. His crunchy spizzle grot note fuckery is just the best. Helena Espvall from the Espers sat in with the band and added some cello drone and vocals for a pretty decent effect. I was kinda buzzy and the players seemed to mesh a little better towards the end. It was all worth it just to hear Kurihara's solo on the encore, which I think was identified by Batoh as being "Comin' Home" (though maybe it was a diff arrangement of the Cosmic Invention song "Callin' Me Home")... just pure gorgeousness. That guitar solo is so far freakin' out, I wanna take it with me. A tad bummed they either didn't play "Hazy Paradise" or I missed it and they didn't play my other fave Ghost jam "Guru in the Echo" in spite of some calls from the audience for it. Alas... I think I first saw Ghost in 1995 opening for Magic Hour and it really kick started my interest in the whole Japanese psych thing so it is great to see them playing even further out 14 years later. We love you, Masaki!
Download of a live show from May 1 2009 Seattle here
I really hope you're not the guy in the white shorts with the fleur de lis who was getting up in front on me next to the stage at all the wrong times. It really sucks to be in the moment and have somebody squeeze in front of you (without ANY eye contact, excuse me, social grace, etc etc) and start taking fucking flash photographs. If it was you, you kinda ruined the last half of the encore for me. Thanks...I like music too you know, and I wouldn't have messed that up for a fellow music fan. If you're not that person, sorry, but you probably know the dude I'm talking about. I PROMISE I won't be so gracious the next time.
ReplyDeleteHi Mauro, it wasn't me, but I think I know who you mean and that is a drag. I wear pants in public.
ReplyDeleteNice, I'm glad it wasn't you because you have a cool blog and I would hate to think you were THAT prick. Thanks for posting the live link....here's one for GHOST 2009-04-28 S.F. @ Independent
ReplyDeletehttp://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZCZMT0ML
I hope that many of the people reading this are enjoying the recording I made of the SF show, and I really hope that there are people recording other shows on this tour (Chicago is the only one I'm aware of so far)!
ReplyDeleteHey Acidhangover, I love that recording of the SF show, sounds great! Thanks for recording and sharing...
ReplyDeleteacidhangover: cool, nice to see another Ghost bootleg. There's also the one I did in Seattle but the quality (of the recording) isn't great although the band was really on and superb.
ReplyDeleteYours sounds great though... thanks man!