HW: Litmus Gig

[Jon Jarrett]

On Thu, 4 Nov 2004, Colin J Allen wrote:

> Just to remind you that Litmus will be playing at the Standard in
> Walthamstow on Friday, November 5th with support from Huw Lloyd-Langton,
> who will be playing an acoustic set.

        I went, of course, what could I be doing on Bonfire Night that
could be better than that. A fair few other people did also so the word is
clearly spreading, even if only in North-East London.

        Gigs at the Standard are beginning to fall into a special category
for me. There's always people I know there, the bands seem more relaxed
than you see them elsewhere, and what was meant as a gig often winds up
being more like being down the pub with some mates who happen to be
musicians. I come away not caring so much what the performance was like
because I had a good time anyway. Not to say I haven't seen some very fine
gigs there but it's not as much the point of going as elsewhere.

        The other thing is that I seem to keep going there to see ageing
guitarists on what we fervently hope, but sometimes easily could be, their
last time on stage. Tony Hill I never expected to see set up to playing
live so readily again; I'm never quite sure the Bevis Frond will ever gig
a next time each time I see them; and then there's Huw Lloyd Langton, on
whom the world seems to drop so much health and life woe that it's always
a relief to see him actually present and able to play. He was sitting for
most of the time he was on stage this time, and walking with evident
difficulty, but after seeing him I always feel the world will probably
continue a bit longer and have my faith renewed in the power of music to
keep people going and other bits of hippy twaddle like that.

        Again, it doesn't always matter whether or not he's very
good, and I've seen him both better and worse than he played this
night. He was clearly not well, he also repeatedly complained that the
stage lights were so bright that he couldn't see his own strings, but he
was still chirpy and chatty. First thing he said to the crowd was, "Well,
wot yer gonna sing for me then?" (how can one man have a speaking voice
*so* Cockney and a singing voice *so* Welsh?) and he kept us entertained
throughout, including by starting with `Wars Are the Hobby There' of which
he almost spoke more than he sang. The rest of thet was `Wind of Change'
(with the `Fifth Second of Forever' theme as intro and outro), `Smokestack
Lightning' (which his voice, not good tonight, actually fitted quite
well), `Rocky Paths' (with an excellent coda I didn't recogniand may well
have been spontaneous), `Solitary Mind Games' (which rather fell over at
the end) and an oddly minor-key version of `Hurry on Sundown' which
sounded much more plaintive in his voice. I hope his health improves,
because I've seen him so much better than this, but seeing him at all is
always a blessing and he was no disgrace to his reputation at all. I'm
still trying to work out what it is about Huw's playing that always gets
me; he always seems to go for the most mournful path through any given
musical stage, there's no-one else like him.

        As for Litmus, well, I guess there has to come a point when any
band which is excelling its previous performance every gig turns in one
which isn't quite as excellent as one of the previous ones and I thought
this was probably it. Slightly freer attitude to things maybe, more
experimentation, more to not quite hit the `eleven' mark. Maybe I was just
grum. I thought it was very good, but not up to their usual world-beating
standards.

        They opened with `Twinstar', though, so that was obviously good,
and followed it with the new `Destroy the Mothership' which is going to be
very very good on record and always better live. Very short number full of
attack (you'd never guess from the title eh?) and diving riff. If this
number was a soldier it'd be a Ghurkha. Top stuff. So it was after that
that it started to wander just a little, maybe. `Dreams of Space' was very
good, but it wasn't quite as fiercely intense as the version at the
Underworld which I nearly died trying to stay the course of the mosh for
the entire break in. Maybe an unrealistic standard but obviously once you
know they can do that you're going to hope for it again... I don't think
there was anything wrong with `(Theta Wave) Oscillator' either but as a
result of the new stuff it's no longer my favourite thing they do live and
it seemed shorter than usual this time as well. And though `Sonic Light'
is a great little bounce it's beginning to look a little throwaway besides
the rest of the setlist.

        You can probably tell that by now I'd made up my mind this wasn't
the best I'd seen them, and I was tired and guarding a rucksack so it's
only fair to say I may have been less open to it than I was at the
Underworld. I did think things just weren't *quite* as tightly focussed as
that time. Partly I think it felt as if Marek's steamroller drum approach
wasn't being quite subtle enough to really kick the songs into orbit; he
was hitting as much as he could all the time, and without much by way of
variation between numbers. There definitely wasn't as much of the `Om
Riff'-like shape-changing in `Oscillator' you get on the record. Maybe as
I say not as much time for it though. So yeah, Difficult to put my finger
on, I just wasn't quite as blown away as usual.

        The site went on with `Rays of Sonic Light', anyway, and then into
the new `Under the Sun', where I can tell you what I thought was off. This
number is plainly still under development and I like the previous bassline
a lot better. It's got the potential to be one of those five-minute songs
that feels as if it took you through three times that much at serious
intensity, but it was more insanely danceable at the Underworld and
whatever they've done to it I hope it gets changed back. It may have just
been the way things worked that day of course in which case I hope to see
it better yet, it's a great piece and will make their name live eternal if
done right. Moreover, they followed it with `Evil', which I only knew from
the sample on the website and had sadly assumed was now discarded. I do
hope not. Even if, as it seems, it's little more than the crushing riff
and mantra chorus that the sample holds, it's still magic and should be
sandwiched between two big numbers in a suite as soon as possible, and I
was very glad thear it, but it did seem to me as if the band weren't quite
sure what to do with because it's so encapsulated, difficult to lead into
or stop and not worth doing for long in case its effect weakens. Still,
helped make my night.

        A few minutes of electronic noise ensued while the stringsmen went
off stage with Marek and all three retruned with Huw, which he'd warned us
might happen (his electric being on stage was a small hint also) and which
obviously we were delighted to see. Bravely, they started with a Litmus
number, which was `Infinity Drive', and that went OK, but Huw didn't
really know where the changes were coming and con't contribute much beyond
understudied space noise. The care Litmus were taking of him rather damped
their own performance without helping his, I thought, but it's still a
good number, it just had a bit of trouble during the last break because of
all this. Perhaps wisely, therefore, that was the last Litmus track we got
for a while, which is obviously a shame, but on the other hand with Huw
on stage this wasn't quite Litmus anyway. It did show how Simon can share
the stage with another excellent guitarist and not look either shoddy or
stage-hogging though.

        Anyway, we got `Waiting For Tomorrow', a really quite good
`Motorway City', an excellent `Moonglum' (I've never seen a bad version of
this though--I was impressed by Martin apparently being faithful to the
lyrics in the chrous, I could never pronounce them correctly and with a
straight face at the same time... ) and then something which I can't now
read in my notes. I remember them doing `Invader', but I've scratched it
out further up the setlist--perhaps it was here? I should remember, but
this detail eludes me (and I await corrections from Colin on half of the
others :-)

        Last track of the main set was an unexpected but thoroughly
enjoyable `Needle Gun' (it's appalling how long it took me to recognise
this, I clearly haven't played _Malpractise_ half enough lately), and with
it still ringing in the rafters Litmus left the stage. Before too long
coaxed back on again, they formed up for more and Simon told us they were
going to attempt a jam. Whether this was really the plan I don't know but
after about a minute-and-a-half of noodling he himself got bored of the
idea and went into a certain well-known riff, and thus the encore was a
thoroughly excellent `Right Stuff'. It seems like I'm seeing this number
at every second gig I'm going to nowadays (I wonder if Space Ritual did it
on the 12th?) but when it's this good I don't mind. Finished just about in
time for me to see that Colin had finally overcome the band's seeming
reluctance to ever have anything to do with merchandise (t-shirts I tell
you!), in as much as there were CDs available, and then scooted for last
tube, which I caught with one to spare, and heaed southward. A good
night. Looking forward to the next one I can get to, yours,
                                                            Jon

ObCD: Gorilla - _Gorilla_
--
                Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College, London
    jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk/ejarr01 at students.bbk.ac.uk
  "As much as the vision of the blind man improves with the rising sun,
       So too does the intelligence of the fool after good advice."
       (Bishop Theodulf of Orleans, late-eight/early-ninth century)