Litmus - Bull and Gate 12.09.09

[Colin Allen]

Just to complete Jon's review, the setlist was:

Infinity Drive
Destroy the Mothership
Tempest
Beyond the Sun
In the Burning Light
Eos
Miles Away
Stars
Kings of Infinite Space
Sonic Light
Under The Sign
Planet Earth
Symptom of the Universe
Ma:55oN Rift
Red Skies
The Temple
Twinstar
Evil
Earthbound

I make that 2 songs from You Are Here:).

Thanks to everyone who came; we certainly enjoyed it!

Colin

--- On Fri, 18/9/09, Jonathan Jarrett <jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK> wrote:

From: Jonathan Jarrett <jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK>
Subject: Re: Litmus - Bull and Gate 12.09.09
To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
Date: Friday, 18 September, 2009, 6:37 PM

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009, Litmus wrote:

> Litmus are playing a "special" at the Bull & Gate in Kentish Town on
> Saturday September 12th.  This will be one of those occasions when
> the band get to play a really long set with no support acts.  The
> infamous Litmus psychedelic lightshow will, of course, be there!

    This was an excellent gig, a real return to form after me seeing too many gigs in a row where the sound was bad, Martin was ill etc. This time everyone was well and the sound, once the keyboards had been adjusted up in the first break, was perfect: I heard words I've never been able to make out before, and indeed, Simon seemed to be trying harder with his singing than usual and had some new ideas for the guitar during the breaks, into which Olly the new keyboard player has managed to force himself. Whenever the band got locked into a jam in one of the many lengthy breaks, I'd look round at Olly after a minute or two and find him tapping a few keys that fit perfectly and occasionally even managing to rev the whole band up by an swirling build-up of tension. This is how it should be, I am very pleased by this tendency.

    I won't give a set-list because Colin can do it better than I can, but special mention must be made of the pair of songs Martin introduced apparently as part of an argument with someone about whether Blodwyn Pig were the best band to come out of Birmingham or not. He prefaced that explanation with the words, "This is for all the people who call us a second-hand second-rate rehash of Hawkwind. I'll have you know, we can be a second-hand second-rate rehash of *any band you care to name*" and then they played Duran Duran's `Planet Earth' and Black Sabbath's `Symptom of the Universe', barely pausing for breath, concluding with the remark, "It's not Blodwyn Pig, is it?" Both versions were excellent; I personally have been waiting for someone to recpature `Planet Earth' for spacerock since I first heard it. And `Symptom' sounds *really weird* without screeched Brummy vocals. Anyway. They then did one track off the second and four-fifths of the first
 demo, so it was a pretty unexpected set all things considered. The main surprise was how little of _You Are Here_ there was, I think only the first track!

    I am getting too old for my old dancefloor antics; my back and neck were killing me for a couple of days afterwards, and my ears only stopped buzzing some time Monday, but it was all worth it. I hope the next gig is sooner than they seemed to think it would be.

> The new album "Aurora" is now available in shops and from the band's
> online shop [1] .

    I bought it, have played it, and will have to live with it a while longer before giving some kind of view. I'm certainly not as immediately struck with it as was Carl, but I want to give it a proper chance before opining. Tell you what though, I'm already really excited for the next one... Yours,
        Jon

--       Jonathan Jarrett, Cambridge    jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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