Gigs

Gig Review: The Warlocks + The Koolaid Electric Company

[Venue: Soul Tree, Cambridge]
[Date: 25 August 2008]

This gig appears to have lost it’s audience. Somewhere between changing venues from one to another the majority have lost faith and disappeared to the pub. Could it be the Soul Tree’s overpriced drinks policy or the early start? - both seem rather feeble excuses. Whatever the reasons, the watching few appear to consist of other band members, roadies, a soundman, a couple of promoters and other assorted names off the guestlist. This could be a disaster.

Things haven’t improved as the psychedelic shoegazers, The Koolaid Electric Company, venture into the menacing gloom to seek out their instruments. Their set appears to be entirely based around two chord songs - occasionally a third or fourth might slip in unnoticed but it’s pretty sparse stuff. Each chord however is lovingly played with, tickled by a vast array of guitar pedals and knobs - overdrive, delay, wah-wah… they’re all there. It’s music designed to impart a vibe, a mood which the audience can close their eyes and sink into. Without anyone out front to appreciate it, unfortunately, the music falls a little flat. The band, likewise, seem disinterested and as they wrap things up there is a definite shake of the head from our bearded frontman - they are not happy bunnies.

Formed in 1999, The Warlocks, no doubt coined from the original name The Grateful Dead used, have changed personnel so often that they are now approaching twenty current and ex-band members. They specialise in a mixture of fuzzed garage rock and psychedelic, experimental twiddling. Tonight, they seem relatively unfazed by the almost non-existent stage lighting (the one solitary overhead pin-light seems focused on bassist Jana Risher, their one scantily-wrapped offering of eye-candy), the dispersed few watching (the numbers have picked up a bit) or the fact they have a drummer wedged up against their arses (the stage is 10 times wider than it is deep).

They seem reluctant to pause for applause, merely allowing one droning song to bleed relentlessly into the next; perhaps in an attempt not to harsh the buzz their echoing wall of sound is creating. Without introduction and without end, it becomes very difficult to identify where one number ends and another begins. However, if I were to have an educated guess at a couple I’d go for ‘Slip Beneath’ and ‘Lovers Like Zombies’, both from their new album ‘Heavy Deavy Skull Lover’.

Again, the music meanders around as few chords as possible but here the skins of the drums are thrashed to the point of collapse to ram the 4/4 beat home. Bob Mustachio’s flicked hair peeps over the top of his kit and we all nod along gently to his crashing output. The four guitars form an, at times, separately indistinguishable riot of twisting, writhing noise which undulates over and under the beat - the main antagonists appear to be Ryan McBride (who is bucking tonight’s preference for black clothes and winklepickers in favour of blue denim and white trainers) and JC Rees (in scarf and wide-brim hat) whose effects pedal boards both seem to stretch beyond time.

Frontman Bobby Hecksher is determined to steal the limelight from the others efforts by half-falling off stage (twice), throwing down his mic stand, and holding his fat old Gibson 355 up to the speaker stack before bringing it back down and making love to it in a series of writhing movements. At other times he can be found wiggling his head a la Paul McCartney in his Beatles heyday. Unfortunately it fails to ignite the crowd any who stare through him in attempt to find some hidden meaning to it all.

You’d think being as dark as shit on stage would be enough but, no, throughout their set a smoke machine pumps out huge volumes of fake “atmosphere” rendering audience snapshots utterly useless - not that anyone seems that bothered enough to click away. The clock strikes 9:30pm and already the band are bringing proceedings to a close with multiple guitars on maximum feedback driving everyone back down the stairs and out of the building into the half-light. An altogether surreal and surprisingly turgid experience rapidly curtailed - there’s still time to join those absentees down the pub.

For Fans Of: The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth

Band Links:
The Warlocks

The Koolaid Electric Company

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