OFF: Litmus in Hitchin

[Colin Allen]

Assuming my usual role as filler-in of setlist gaps, the "slow almost-pastoral piece 
dominated by a two-chord organ line" was Planetfall, the title track of the new album.

Jonathan Jarrett <jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK> wrote:  On Wed, Mar 21, 2007 at 01:51:56PM -0400, Mark Darkstar typed out:
> I was just wondering if anybody besides myself was going to the Litmus, Omnia 
> Opera, Lloyd Langton Gig in Hitchin on the 31st of this month.

I was there, and did see, and all that.

Huw was looking fitter and happier than I can remember seeing 
him since 1997 or thereabouts, but was I thought a bit slapdash in his 
playing; lost of noise and fury but a mite more precision would probably 
have made for better music. He was mainly entertaining for his banter 
with the audience, and I've seen him better than this, but the way he 
looked and acted makes it look likely that I will again too, so that's 
cool. His setlist was:

Cardboard City
Tears of a Clown (this one really doesn't work if you aren't going to 
bother with the oompah-oompah rhythm, or indeed any rhythm at all)
Wind of Change
Rocky Paths
Hurry on Sundown (with Marek and Martin from Litmus on unprepared drums 
and bass)

I had the fear about Omnia Opera, because their website said 
they'd reformed without the original keyboardist and with an extra 
guitarist. Since the original keyboardist shared the vocals and wrote a 
good chunk of the material that seemed like an ill omen to me, and I 
confess that after listening again to their self-titled and hearing on 
headphones the way the keyboard patterns were woven into everything I 
could imagine no way a second guitar could take that place.

I'm happy to say, though, that I was wrong about almost 
everything I've said in that paragraph. Firstly, they had a keyboardist, 
though not I think the original guy. Secondly, they had two women 
singing backing to make up for the missing vocals; they appeared to be 
mother and daughter, and danced when not singing, and I was happy with 
that. They also had a kind of miniature Arthur Brown type guy, not 
exactly dancing, but wandering around portentuously in costumes with 
props, a Dickensian vicar, a tumbler, and so on. He wasn't really 
contributing much but neither did he hinder. And lastly, the keyboardist 
was mainly doing swoosh and atmospherics, but the songs are perfectly 
strong without the keyboard parts (though they'd have been better with).

So they took the stage, and hit the first riff I ever heard of 
theirs, and were off! and suddenly it was clear that it was going to be 
All Right. The bass-player is solid as anything, the vocals were good 
(though he avoided the high notes he made on the CDs), the guitarist not 
quite focussed but that worked for him in the breaks and he was close 
enough with the riffs. The drummer probably could have used more than 
one way to fill 4:4, but beyond that I've no complaints; I've seen bands 
come back from the dead in this genre in much much poorer state than 
this and playing far less complicated material. Their setlist was:

Annihilation
Floating Settee
? [this was more basic than the others and had a lot of stuff about 
telepathy and flying in it that made me wonder if it might be a 
cover of some early Gong I don't know]
Space Bastard

Their songs are not short, as you can probably tell... So that 
was good.

Litmus were, I think, as good as I've ever seen them. Not to 
say perfect; Andy's keys were inaudible for the first number, making the 
break he's supposed to rule rather uninteresting, and there was at least 
one band fumble of the ball I spotted and maybe more, but the attack and 
pace were maintained even in the improvised bits where the throttle was 
eased for a few moments. Less messing about and more focus than I've 
seen them give for a while, and it paid off. Marek was on especially 
fine drumming form. Anton's electronics on the other hand rather less 
constant than usual, I thought, but both he and Andy were occasionally 
drowned out by the central trio's fury--Simon's guitar could *possibly* 
have used being quieter. I'm not sure he'd agree :-) Setlist was:

Intro
Infinity Drive
Dreams of Space
Sonic Light
(Theta Wave) Inductor
Astronomy Domine [this gets better every time, it was mindmelting]
Under the Sign [they got so much out of this I thought the second ending 
actually spoiled it slightly, we were already sated by then]
? [I haven't yet caught this one's name, a slow almost-pastoral piece 
dominated by a two-chord organ line--a well-timed interlude of 
calm, shortly obliterated by...]
Destroy the Mothership!
The Tempest
[At this point Huw was coaxed on stage to join them]
Motorway City
Moonglum
Needle Gun [this one works better for Litmus than the other two]
*
The Right Stuff [brutal version, excellent]

Club 85's a good venue too, both spacy and spacious, and though 
there seemed to be difficulties with gear setting up the sound was fine 
once Andy's keys were located. The crowd was quite thick, and I 
recognised hardly any of them; where have all these space-rockers been 
hiding? Perhaps proximity to London explains it. Anyway. It was bloody 
good fun and I hope for a next instalment of both bands again soon; they 
make a good combination. Yours all,
Jon

-- 
"When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
(Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk