Secret Chiefs 3: The Three / Brazen Serpent (live 5.31.2007)

we didn't mix this but we were involved with the filming.

05.31.2007 Secret Chiefs 3 / Faun Fables

Secret Chiefs 3 is probably a band that is most likely not well known to those not familar with Bungle/Patton/FNM projects. After finding a hard time trying to wrap my head around a Tomahawk or Fantomas albums, I almost dismissed SC3 with the rest of the band's cohorts. However, as luck would have, a certain video clip from youtube, changed my mind; it had in fact made me almost anxious to see them live. Which leads to Thursday night.

Faun Fables, which is really just Dawn McCarthy, opened the show. For most of the set, it was just her and her acoustic guitar. On other songs, she would be joined by members of SC3 for additional instrumentation. Her music consisted of folk tunes with varying themes. Oddly enough a portion of her set consisted of a couple of songs themed around the kitchen. She seemed quite proud of that fact. Her last number, was a dancy (in a hippie dancing kind of way) number in which she showed the audience a dance that she came up with - which was vaguely reminescent of the Macarena. The hippies seemed to eat it up. Did I mention there were a lot of hippies at this show - The I don't know personal space / I'm casting a spell dancing hippies were all there.

After a short break, SC3 came out on stage. Dressed in black robes decorated with Masonary insignias, the band seemed to play up on the almost esoteric nature of their music. Boasting a band that would make both Godspeed you! Black Emperor and Do Make Say Think proud, they consisted a sitar player, 2 drummers, a guiatrist, bassist, a keyboardist and a violinist. Playing music that spanned their many albums, SC3 seemed to shift through many genres of music almost seemlessly. Middle Eastern, Mediterranian, Surf Rock, Death Metal and Motion picture type music were represented effortlessly. The evening was divided into two 45 minute sets and a two song encore. Despite the volume of music, it never seemed boring or pretentious which is can be a common complaint for bands with such wide influences. Even the smaller sized audience (the balcony was closed off), didnt seem to detract from the overall show or performance- some would argue it created a more intimate show. In truth, I doubt anyone would have complained if the show had lasted another 2 hours.

$20/$20

12.02.2006 Wintersleep/Malajube

So Malajube doesn't allow video taping. got shut down by their tour manager. interesting.. they still put on a pretty decent set. as you can see it's a very similar setlist to their show the day before. still no la russe or even ton plat favori. guess i'll have to wait until a headlining set.

Setlist

Montreal -40 degre Celcius
Pate FIlo
Pirate
Casse-Cou
le Crabe
Etienne D'aout
la monogamie



I guess Wintersleep realized it was the last show of their tour, so they sucked it up and put on a rockin set despite being sick. way to 'leave it all on the field' boys. They opened with 'search party' again. love that song. man, their new album is going to be great. There were extended jams on nerves and dance as usual, different ones than i've seen/heard before. seriously, without being too much of a fanboy, they had so much energy and enthusiasim that you wouldn't think that 4/5 of them were sick. Helping out once again, doing keys/back vocals/guitar was semi-permenant member Jon Samuel.





They played listen listen towards the end, an unexpected treat as it was not on the setlist. Fog was also played with some interesting guitar work by Tim. Would've liked to hear People Talk for once, but you can't get everything. Overall about 80+ minutes of rocking.

Setlist

search party
oh moon and the shiny tamborine
jaws of life
calibre
weighty ghost
murderer
orca
fog
nerves normal, breath normal
migration
listen (listen, listen)
archaeologists
---
a long flight
danse macabre

The only thing that really irked me were the group of people that were beside me in the front row, especially the chick who was having a disruptive conversation during the entire night, and most annoyingly, during listenx3.

30/0 I didn't pay anything but the show was worth at least 30.