J Mascis
Chevron Festival Gardens
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
For the second night in a row, Perth people flocked to the Festival Gardens in droves to get a dose of the finest double bill of the festival. It is known that Mogwai play at a volume that your dead grandmother could hear, but J Mascis was meant to be the calm before the storm with his acoustic set.
J Mascis came out in a trucker hat with his flowing grey mane and bright red glasses to sit sedately enough on a chair. For the next hour he made his guitar make the type of sounds and volumes that should come with a health warning. The second coming of Dinosaur Jr is in full swing, but the majority of the set would come from his underrated new solo album, Tied To A Star. Me Again was given a fairly faithful run through albeit at a solid volume, without disturbing any of the tunes impeccable melody. Little Fury Things was welcomed early on with Mascis unleashing a distortion pedal during the chorus that was like a punch to the chest.
An array of pedals that allowed Mascis to loop guitar tracks and manipulate sounds were put to fine use during the extended solo of Ammaring and Get Me, whilst Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You was given a Neil Young bent at the hands of the laconic Mascis. Known as a precocious talent but somewhat of a slacker, Mascis pushed the myth aside by studying charts and instructions before ending on the highs of Not You Again and Just Like Heaven. A far more dynamic set than previous solo Mascis shows was worth the price of admission alone.
Scottish noise merchants Mogwai weren’t to be outdone. Any thoughts that this being an outdoor venue would offer some respite for the ears were allayed from the get go as Heard About You Last Night swelled to into a majestic beast. The 3D shapes adorning the scaffolding gave the stage a backdrop that mirrored the Rave Tapes album cover, but the band would move through the breadth of their catalogue with ease. Ithica 27ø9 was mammoth in parts but also condensed down to a dull roar when the band wanted to show that they are still masters of the quite/loud dynamic.
Vocals made a brief appearance as Barry Brooks drew the short straw on Travel Is Dangerous. Mogwai are so good at what they do, that their reluctance to use vocals does them no harm. When they do man the microphones, the results are often better than their self-deprecating banter would have you believe. Rano Pano was a fuzzed out beast that was conducted at an obscene volume that ensured punters felt the tune as well as heard it. The lighting added to the atmosphere with seizure inducing ferocity. Christmas Steps was the night’s surprise inclusion as the ten minute jaunt built to a brutal crescendo and was powered by a mighty meaty drum sound. Things were often at their most melodic when Brooks was at the keyboard as Rock Action showed.
By the time Mogwai Fear Satan ended the crowd just stood in awe at what they had just witnessed from the unassuming five-piece, and you could have heard a pin drop – if you had a stubborn piece of eardrum still fully functional.
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
