My Morning Jacket / Killing Joke / VHS Or Beta / Black Box Recorder / The Fever - New York Webster Hall - 22/10/03
4/5
By: Joshua K
For the uninitiated, CMJ once stood for 'College Music Journal' and 'College Media Journal' - it's the service that tracks airplay on university radio stations - and became a mere abbreviation when the concept of American college radio = indie rock turning into a laughable cliché.
That said, smart money bets that if one event would be consistent, it would be the flagship opening night party for the CMJ conference. (That and the Rough Trade 25th Anniversary Party the next night.) With an eclectic line-up covering all parts of the rock, pop and post-rock spectrum, smart money would be right.
After snacking on the complimentary buffet rockfeedback makes its way to the main ballroom (free-loaders, us?). Herewith, brief thoughts on the 5+ hours of music...
The Fever: The night begins auspiciously with a taut, angular 35-minute set from the young New York punk-funkers and never looks back. Walking the tight-rope between a krautrocking 'Bridge & Tunnel', PIL-like 'Living Room' and funky 'Ladyfingerz' should see these five charismatic boys go far. Sheila E cover 'Glamorous Life' still doesn't live up to the original, but gets an 'A' for effort.
Black Box Recorder: England's finest pop cynics - Luke Haines, John Moore and Sarah Nixey, all resplendent in white suits - are up next, with their first visit over the pond in several years. We're therefore treated to fabulously withering renditions of songs spanning the BBR canon, from newer tracks 'The School Song' and 'These Are The Things' to earlier successes 'The Facts of Life' and 'England Made Me'. On tonight's evidence, Haines' transition from angry misanthrope to graceful curmudgeon (like a sober Mark E. Smith) continues smoothly.
VHS or Beta: This Louisville, Kentucky quintet's 45-minute nonstop jam does the unthinkable: it gets jaded industry types to shake their asses. So, what do they sound like? That changes by the minute, but picture Led Zep getting shafted by The DFA before turning into freeform jazz meets Latin rhythms and '70s soul. Too tight to be prog, too funky to be post-rock, if their boundless layers of uninterrupted musical pounding aren't the future then we don't know what is.
Killing Joke: Unless, of course, the future is Armageddon. Despite the rumors proving false that Dave Grohl would reprise his role on the recent album by joining Jaz Coleman's shock troops on drums, Killing Joke are a massive-sounding proposition. Taking the stage at midnight, his face painted in grim reaper stylee, Jaz continues to embody uncontrollable rage after 25 years, wailing, howling and spasming through nearly an hour of brutality. Cymbals crash, guitars roar, the mere cry of 'War dance!' gets 40-year-olds who should know better slam dancing - and that is all ye need to know.
My Morning Jacket: Finally, MMJ. Spend just a few minutes in their presence and you realize two things: such is their hair, that this is how it would look if Super Furry Animals' yeti costumes formed a band.
The Jacket's live reputation has them down as reinterpreting their graceful alt-country meditations as storming country rockers - and tonight the Lynyrd Skynyrd and Alabama are in full effect. Think leg kicks, heavy guitar, singer Jim James headbanging over the crowd and hair veritably flailing about the stage. And amazingly, the reworkings work, wondrously, from 'Lowdown' (off 'At Dawn') to the already more up-tempo 'Easy Morning Rebel' and 'Dancefloors' (off new LP 'It Still Moves').
Kept rapt by such a display, rockfeedback stumbles home way too late. But the next day's aching bones and heavily-bagged eyes were well worth it.
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