I’ve been listening to the Montreal collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor for more than a decade now but only saw them for the first-time last night at the Metropolis in Montreal with Neurosis. Lame, I know – but I’m glad I got to see them in their hometown. The band was on ‘hiatus’ for nearly a decade from 2003 to 2011, while pursuing other projects, e.g., A Silver Mt Zion, HRSTA, Set Fire to Flames. They started playing again while I was living in Spain, and unfortunately, we had to miss them in Madrid and Barcelona in fall 2012. But last night was it. And holy shit, they are incredible! All the hyperbole about the live show being a prophetic experience is pretty damn close to being true. After waiting outside for nearly an hour and a half, we were lucky enough to up front.
GY!BE live
@ The Metropolis, Montreal 2014
The setlist spanned their catalogue, with the highlight being their yet to be recorded track. I had listened to liveversions of Behemoth a few times, but nothing prepares you for the visceral onslaught that is that song performed live. Forty-minutes integrating everything that makes this band so great – drones, crescendos, power. Let’s hope this gets put down on tape soon. Gathering Storm and The Sad Mafioso were two I was hoping to hear and Mladic from their newest album Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! (2012, Constellation Records) was jaw-droppingly good. I was upfront (not the best place for the best mix, I know), and the drums didn’t seem mixed entirely correctly for the beginning of Mladic, but by the end of the track, it was full on. Setlist: hope drone > mladic > gathering storm> behemoth> the sad mafioso. I’m only gutted that I won’t be able to stick around in Montreal for the second of the two shows tonight.
fifteen years on... 