I don’t go to many concerts these days, probably due to
expense/laziness, but mainly down to the fact that there aren’t too many good
bands out there that warrant the effort. I’ll support my friends etc and check
out those word of mouth recommendations from time to time, and this is how I
came across GOAT, an obscure Swedish outfit that were playing only 3 shows in
Britain recently, and what a stroke of luck that one of those 3 shows happened
to be in Newcastle. Most bands these days bypass Newcastle, probably due to
there being a fairly moribund scene here – no-one seems to get that excited
here, all too cool for school methinks.
I came across GOAT when a friend of mine sent me a link to
one of their videos on you tube and I became slightly obsessed with it, with
it’s dirty bass line and freak out guitar married to a tribal chanting and
video featuring South American indigenous people falling prey to white hunters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keAwK766Ek0
Now I had heard that this band hail from an obscure part of
Sweden and, despite having known each other since childhood, had never really
played live, instead concentrating on jamming, and more recently recording an
album called “World Music”, which is superb. So, with this in mind, could they
cut it live? Were they going to prove to be a mighty disappointment? Not on
your Nelly!
Like The Residents GOAT prefer to let the music do the
talking and therefore regale themselves in masks and outfits belying their
interest in tribal accoutrements ranging from African to Venetian, from
Witchcraft to Voodoo, painting themselves in a variety of guises like a tribal
Halloween party. The two female singers, who, like Abba, sing all their chants
in unison, were dressed like middle eastern dancers at a fancy dress ball, with
Venetian masks and feathers, entering with bells and incense and dancing
throughout like Sufi dervishes.
Their music is hypnotic, tribal, intense, and heavy,
reminding me of so much ethnic, mainly Jungian African/Moroccan music, but also
more Western stuff especially Can and This Heat and some of the more hypnotic
Krautrock.
The place was packed, dark and hot and, due to the amount of
tall people standing towards the front, it was difficult to see everything,
which I think added to the mystique, catching glimpses of the band as they
played. The sound was intense, and mesmerising as they lurched from one dark
vibe to the next, like a voodoo dance party. Each part played added up to more
than the sum, creating a chanting looping rhythm that forces the body to move
to the pulse of the percussion which crashes and throbs with the bass (a red
Rickenbacker 4001 no less), while the 2 guitars intertwine and stab and
occasionally let rip with dirty lead breaks, intermittently holding down the
beat like chains on a slave.
I found my head and neck pulsing with a life of their own
whilst my legs and feet stamped on the ground with Beefhearts floppy boots
while I was transported to a time when there was nothing but life coursing
through our veins and out of our hands in celebration that there was nothing but
to be alive.
GOAT is a celebration, but not necessarily a happy one. They
are life-affirming and death-affirming. They shake your soul out of it’s body
and carry it away on Mayan pyres with dreams of ancient bones rattling, and
dark drums beating somewhere out there on the ‘vast and subtle plains of
mystery’ (Joni Mitchell). I don’t know if they intend playing live again, but
if they do please check them out. You may never be the same again, and you’ll
be all the better for it.
