Gig Review #1.

ROBERT PLANT AND THE BAND OF JOY OLYMPIA THEATRE, DUBLIN, 1st NOVEMBER 2010

Robert Plant last appeared in the Olympia in 2005 on The Mighty Rearranger tour with his band The Strange Sensation.  Since then he has scaled even greater heights in this, a veritable late career renaissance. His collaboration with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss on 2007’s Raising Sand garnered him widespread critical acclaim and five Grammy’s. And that on the back of a triumphal Led Zeppelin reunion in London’s 02 that brought worldwide speculation of a full reunion and world tour. Despite the obscene amounts of money on offer and a willing Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, Plant quashed all the rumours, opting to continue with his flourishing solo career.

This time around, Plant has resurrected the name of his very first band – The Band of Joy, which he formed in 1966; which at one point included John Bonham on drums. It is clear however, that this current incarnation, bears little resemblance (bar Plant it features none of the original members).  Plant has assembled a new band with some of Nashville’s finest including Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller and Daryl Scott.

A full house in Dublin’s Olympia jostles for space and a better view. Crackly strains of Son House and Robert Johnson waft through the air as if from some ancient gramophone hidden in the house PA. There is a sense of anticipation in the air. People are rushing from the bar in order to get a prime spot.

Robert Plant and The Band of Joy arrive on stage almost covertly; there is no dimming of house lights. It’s clear from the outset that Plant is in excellent voice. Although he may not be able to scream whole lotta love anymore, his voice has aged well. It has become softer in tone, less shrill and piercing than it once was. It’s also clear that The Band Of Joy is an especially accomplished group of musicians. Buddy Millar’s guitar is at once thick with fuzzy tones and yet still with enough clarity to allow him inhabit the ground somewhere between rock and country. Patty Griffin’s distinctive down homey twang is the perfect foil to plant’s majestic and emotive palette. The musicianship on display is quite astounding with each player switching to several different instruments and all singing leads. It’s quite amusing to see the eternal front man plant take a back seat at times.

Opening the proceedings with a stomping version of Down to the sea complete with Plant’s trademark eastern handclaps, and utterly beautiful group harmonies, it’s a sign of what’s to come.  A superb cover of Richard Thompson’s “House Of Cards” shows how far Plant has come from his 1980’s mediocrity and how much his musical maturity suits him. A brilliant and unexpected version of “Monkey” by Low with Plant and Griffin’s haunting duet complete with almost whispered vocals is a highlight.

With any Robert Plant gig, there are always the numerous Led Zeppelin t-shirts to be seen. The band plays six Zeppelin numbers, all in utterly different incarnations to the originals. An almost unrecognisable “Misty Mountain Hop” with a completely reworked yet brilliant guitar riff by Buddy Miller and stunning backing vocals by Griffin has the audience on their feet. An excellent version of “Tangerine” is quite suited to the band of joy considering its origins in the hills of wales on the folky Led Zeppelin III.

Midway through this mixed bag is the highlight of the entire show - An astonishing acapella version of “In My Time Of Dying” which captures the raw beauty and searing emotion of the original, it’s a jaw dropping version that has the audience almost spellbound. The house is utterly brought down with a shudderingly brilliant version of ”rock and roll” that still has the pure adrenaline rush of the original but with The Band of Joy’s distinctive country folk stamp. A group acapella of the Grateful Dead’s “and we bid you good night” wraps up the entire evening nicely.

An utterly enjoyable experience with a music legend and one who in recent years seems to be going from strength to strength. The key to his recent success may be his relaxed maturity, no longer pandering to the Led Zep hordes and embracing his inner muse. The few disappointed Zeppelin fans who expected The Songs Remains The Same may be missing the brilliance of seeing the great man achieve a second career peak.

Album Review #1.

THE OCEAN - ANTHROPOCENTRIC

The Ocean have always been regarded as one of the most chameleonic and exploratory bands in the generally underground world of post metal. A band with a rotating door policy even after they dropped the “collective” from their name, the only constant has been the founder and songwriter, Robin Staps. But since 2007’s Precambrian, Staps seems to have set his sights on a more stable line up after Mike Pilat departed at the end of the Precambrian tour.

In April 2010, Heliocentric was released featuring the new line up and most notably, the new vocalist Loïc Rossetti. His arrival seemed to mark a stylistic and dynamic shift, for the first time they sounded like a band rather than a lumbering collective of session musicians and guest vocalists. It also marked the first album with a notable number of tracks sung with clean vocals rather than the typical metal growl. Counterpoint to the sonic change, Staps continued his love for the concept album, with Heliocentric being a heavy philosophical and intellectually plausible debate on Christianity, taking concepts from Nietzsche, Copernicus, Rimbaud and Darwin.

Heliocentric was a critical success and the most important Ocean album to date. It would have been in the running for album of the year, if it wasn’t for November’s release of its companion album Anthropocentric.

Considering how much of a watershed Heliocentric was it was difficult to see how the Ocean would follow it up. But Anthropocentric is a revelation. It continues with the same musical shift that began on its predecessor. However, immediately, you sense something has changed, it may be difficult to perceive on first listen with the title track coming out of the gates like a hungry caged animal and Rossetti shredding his larynx with relish. Luc Hess’s drums are as pummelling and precise as any speed metal drummer albeit with added flourishes. Robin Staps and Jonathan Nido succeed in building a wall of guitars with immediacy and texture. About midway through the track, a startling gear change with clean guitars allows Rossetti to showcase his astonishing singing voice. This also allows Staps’ brilliant song writing to shine, which is the key to Anthropocentric’s genius. The beautifully harmonic and utterly catchy chorus means it’s easy to forget this is an extreme metal band at all, it just shows how far the band have come in recent years. It’s worth mentioning that the Ocean all live in different European cities and write by sending each other songs and ideas online.

Overall the album seems somewhat heavier than Heliocentric, following the Ocean tradition of one melodic progressive album and one traditional hardcore album, but in this instance it’s not that simple. Although this is missing the orchestration and piano ballads, it’s the loud quiet take on the vocals that really take you another place altogether, it’s an album that’s crushingly heavy in places and achingly melodic in others.

Lyrically, Staps continues his critique on Christianity, this time focusing on fundamentalism and creationists who believe the earth to be only 5,000 years old and at the centre of the universe. Dostoyevsky’s The Brother Kamerezov provides inspiration for three tracks which are the back bone of the album “"The Grand Inquisitor I, II and III”.

The album closes with one of the most beautiful songs this year. The closing refrain of the “"The Almightiness Contradiction" with the repeated lines “there’s no one here who knows it all, is there’s something there beyond the world we know?” is one of the most spine tingling vocal breakdown’s heard in recent times. A fitting climax to a masterful collection of songs.

It may seem clichéd for a metal band to be singing about such highbrow concepts and may seem to some as only a few steps removed from their death metal cousins’ songs about worshipping Satan; but it’s a far more important piece of art, and an utterly brilliant collection of songs that are at once moving and powerful. The Ocean have turned in the two best albums of 2010 and a supremely intelligent comment on organised religion. This is the sound of a superbly talented band with a songwriter on the top of his game.

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