Sonic at the Spitz 26th July 2004

The Breeze · Post by **The Breeze** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 10:56 am

Sweaty venue - hairy people.

Sonic came on with Speak n' Spell et al, got the levels right and performed one continuous piece.It was an interesting sound landscape that he created, not unlike sitting in silence and watching a sunrise by the sea (no birds though!). Same kinda feel as Sparrowfall on Brian Eno's 'Music for Films' . I enjoyed it and thought it would be a great chillout piece if performed outside a tent at Glastonbury around 8am. There was some twitching of the crowd after 5 mins or so and some early departures but most stayed till the end.
Support band were a bit pretentious. Really rocked for their first song but lost it by tring to do Can-style ballads that came out sounding like Metallica. Shame really as the drums, bass and guitar got a good groove going at some points.

It can't be long before Sonic gets offered a gig at the Barbican, surely!

Neil · Post by **Neil** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 12:23 pm

Have to agree with you there about Sonic's set it would have been amazing during sunrise at Glastonbury. This is the second time I have seen Sonic live now, the other being the Northampton gig back in Feb, and I have to say that the EAR stuff is better live than on CD.

Although I would prefer some new Spectrum stuff especially after listening to the new Refractions compilation this morning it does make you wonder why Sonic doesn't record some more structured songs as it's far better than any of the EAR stuff.

Did anyone see the first band Hypnotique? That was quite different

The Breeze · Post by **The Breeze** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 1:58 pm

I get the feeling that Sonic is doining the music he really wants to do with EAR but the places he plays are a bizarre choice for this kind of music. As someone who goes to 'classical' concerts and even some 'avant garde' classical evenings, I think Sonic would benefit from a venue more conducive to the 'art-vibe'. Aphex Twin did a set at the Science museum and I could see EAR really working in a gallery or sculpture exhibition.
It's funny how Sonic sets up and then stands back to admire all the equipment together whilst other enthusiasts take photos. I wonder if he was ever into cars or motorbikes?
I, for one, am really looking forward to him getting out on the road with Spectrum and doing some gigs. It would be nice to hear him do stuff like 'Feels Like I'm Slipping Away' live aswell as his covers of 'True Love' and 'California Lullaby' which are right up there with Jason's greatest ballads.
Roll on Sunday at the RFH!

Were Hypnotique the girl with the theramin? She was very good.

Neil · Post by **Neil** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 2:38 pm

I think that Spitz was a good setting for EAR if the second band hadn't been playing as they kind of changed the whole vibe of the place as both EAR & Hypnotique were quite chilled.

I know what you mean about people photographing his electronic equipment, someone standing behind me was very excited by the fact one piece of equipment used to belong to delia derbyshire.

Hypnotique was the girl, the first 30 seconds you were just sitting there thinking what the hell is going on here but it ended up being a really good set, especially the last couple of tracks.

chisel chest · Post by **chisel chest** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 9:12 pm

well, i was there and i took along about 7 mates including my girlfriends dad who was visiting in london at the time and i was bigging it up expecting a spectrum gig like i saw last time at the ica (which was fucking amazing) with tunes, little did i know (or was it advertised) as an ear gig, but i was into it for the first 20 minutes but after that it was just a bit empty and i didnt get the feeling he was being sincere, my girlfriend thought he was just playing a cd and all the moniters and shit was just to impress you and although i dont wanna think that, i did spot a cd player looking machine with numbers on it, it was intresting but it would have been better if hed at least done a couple of different landscapes instead of just the one, i dunno, i guess im was just a little dissapointed he didnt do the spectrum stuff which had all the ambience of the ear stuff but a whole lot more, i cant reccomend strongly enough seeing sonic in spectrum mode, but as has been posted, id leave the ear stuff to a comedown on a field on a random one, so whens spectrum doing the rounds again ?