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| Jim O'Rouke,
The Garage, London |
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| Live,
Justin Harries,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F5
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Rock concerts, for all the guitar smashing, are in fact pretty predictable affairs. The band stumble on, noise is made for around an hour, the band shuffle off. However, in the world of Jim O’Rourke, poster boy for avant pop fans, things are not so simple. OK, so he does the shuffling part well, but for the restÂ….
Were getting ahead of things here. First up are Hood, all the way from Bradford. I’ve never been to Bradford, but I guess it’s pretty industrial, for Hood play that pretty/noisy music that seems to stem from the greyest of city centres. Reminiscent of old school ambientists Bark Psychosis they whip up an icy storm, with some of that aforementioned guitar destruction bringing heat. Bizarrely everyone in the audience seems to know one of the members, and even though the most conventional of acts on tonight’s roster, they go down a treat. It pays to have friends.
Next! Loren MazzaCane Conners, a man destined to have back problems in later life. Someone should have a word about his posture, if he could listen. Keeled over his guitar, the floppiest of fringes obscuring his face, Conners draws forth his shimmering blues wail, that quickly turns to a thundering metal apocalypse. Ultimately this is Conners doing his thang, take it or leave it. As the Garage is not a venue sympathetic to the sound of hushed introspection most people leave it, with the occasional ear prickling to the noise assaults.
It is in this very ungig like atmosphere that Mr. O’Rourke first appears, backing Conners with guitar, wig and corduroy jacket. Things noodle in the same manner, enlivened when a member of the audience pinched Jimbos guitar and attempted to stage dive. Later I heard the same fellow bellowing to a friend about "playing Jim O’Fucking Rourkes guitar!" A very strange chap indeed.
On to O’Rourke solo, what would that cheeky Chicargen pull from his bag of post rock tricks? Starting his career playing a horizontal guitar, he later progressed to actually not having to be on stage whilst performing. Recently sightings have him pegged as a lap top boy, although last years Eureka hear him in singer songwriter mode. And the winner is – (drum roll) singer songwriter! Armed with trusted guitar, O’Rourke picks and mumbles his way through tonight’s ‘entertainment’. The expected disruptive element is present and correct, as almost every song is interrupted by O’Rourkes disjoined musings, as well as a few jokes to boot. Sure the music he plays, from the finger licking/picking good Bad Timing to EP Half Way to a Three Way sure is pretty, but it is incessantly drowned out by crowd noise, and lacks beauty due to lack of atmosphere.
I have a feeling it was meant to be this way; our boy Jim’s a cunning deconstructivist when he wants to be. Last years Happy Days featured pretty guitar ramblings being gradually overcome by an orchestra of hurdy gurdys – tonight’s experience achieved the same effect, although this time, the orchestra got to pay him.
10/05/00
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