Current 93 @ Queen Elizabeth Hall

Black flips ate the mind

19/6/11

To simply speak about how beautifully they played their vocal card - and guitars and piano and percussion - is way too shallow for a band like Current 93.
Not that they don't deserve a really in depth musical mention. But when David Tibet - and all that blessed company of his - hit the stage, there's only one thing that possesses the mind: impassioned paranoia. In perfect experimental neofolk (and whatever else they call them) unison.
Tibet orchestrates the ensemble, no doubt, but the way they all manage to deliver those all-time melodies that strike a chord beyond control is mind-boggling.

James Blackshaw - what an amazing addition to this ever changing line-up. Don't just limit yourselves to his guitar work - try his solo piano concerts for a change.
Baby Dee - what an individual seamlessly integrating her unique personality into Tibet's vision. I noticed how a click of hers made all the difference, creating heart-breaking sensibility from one single and silly high note; and that's owed to the songwriter's genius, as much as her own soul spilling in perfect tune with the
melody.
There was a really young guitarist who joined in for a few songs. Pays justice to their eclecticism.. He probably left early to go to sleep (curfew in effect).
In the posh Queen Elizabeth Hall not many heads were moving and not many bodies were swaying in their seats (try next to none; well, mine was).
Current 93, well, they are not for everybody. Definitely not for the faint-hearted and the so-and-so.
Somebody in the end commented, "wow, loads of passion here". You got it. I had been looking for people that burn and shiver like Current. Ninety three burns and ninety three shivers with every verse that make your head flip and your heart spin. And when it's all over, you don't know how to live without. How do you really get back to life, where things don't twist and turn the way that makes every moment purposeful?

I appreciated Honeysuckle Aeons and their other latest stuff better (though once more, they left me hanging not including my favourite Niemandwasser - their king of hearts, as I like to call it).
But I appreciated living life to the full even more. Like David's friend Sebastian, who died. Who, as David said, had jackets with little pockets for heroine syringes.
Either way... Wake up!