Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - London Conway Hall - 25/2/00
5/5
By: Toby L
As the crowd congregates in the hall that resembles heaven's waiting room, DJ Chris Ronco is downstairs, amidst the seated audience, spinning tracks from the good ole' days. However, that's not the only bizarre thing that is going on tonight.
We enter the venue, and are each handed a photo-copied, pamphlet-style programme that goes on to tell us the alleged origins of each band member, as well as japing over the set-up of this special tour for the Gorky's. The reason this UK-outing proves particularly special is because this tour sees them playing obscure theatres around the country, performing two sets in the same evening: a (well, almost) acoustic show and a poodle-rocking electric set where, the programme states, they 'stand up' to play. Suddenly, the upside down, half-pipe of a ceiling allows the sound to be deflected right back down on to us, as an obscure version of 'These Boots Are Made For Walking' pops up on the PA; yes, the potential to this night seemed to be very scary indeed.
However, no need for further freaking out, because here they come. Lead singer, Euros Childs plonks down on a seat at his keyboard and the rest of the band assembles around the cramped stage, with violinist Megan Childs centre-stage. A politely hushed audience listens attentively through the first ten songs displayed in a 45-minute, mellow display of the band's softer, angelic side. As they get bathed in blood-red and dark blue lighting, hearts are pulled and squeezed as the act stroll through beatific lullabies, with the almost-gospel of 'Tears in Disguise' enough to make even the toughest of hearts crumble. There's little ad-lib between songs and what does get said is pretty indistinguishable, but that no less ruins the intimacy of the soiree; as they're so near, you could be forgiven for thinking that they are singing to you exclusively - mere banter need not ruin the experience.
Yet we can't lose ourselves completely, because we succumb ourselves to an excursion of new track, 'How I Long to Feel that Summer in my Heart': a melody achingly heart-rendering, fear can be found in the line, 'I've got to go where money's made', and it's as if your most precious secret is about go flying out the window. The first set ends with Euros peculiarly commenting, 'Let's do a Christmas song now... I've got my Christmas hat on,' and soon, off they go, the silenced crowd given a chance to escape to the bar before they return for what is described in the programme as Act III. Obviously.
True enough, the sacred papers, firstly handed to us on the way in, prove correct as all stools that the band were seated on during the first half of the show get removed, allowing space for the band to stand. Time is given to observe this strange choice for a venue, which is best known for recitals and generally looking like a gothic church. At the top of the space, the words, 'To thine own self be true' peer back at you, accusingly.
Euros and co. soon return, offering the seated audience downstairs the chance to similarly stand up, and, faster than Robbie Williams running to a pie-store, hundreds gallop to the front of the stage. This is the first indication of how the mood and atmosphere would turn around completely into one of manic lighting, shameless head-banging from the likes of the bushy-haired lead-singer/keyboardist, as well as forceful drumming from Euros Rowlands, who, up to now, hadn't been given his time to shine. New single 'Poodle Rockin' sets people in the audience barking like the species of dog featured in the track's title as well as the chance to get frightened at Megan's new aggressive form of violin-playing - this time in rock, baby.
Old favourites pass and by the time 'Sweet Johnny' from 'Gorky 5' is given an excursion, you know that this band have the audience in the palms of their hands. 'Spanish Dance Troupe' is understandably magic and the trademark GZM harmonies work like an epiphany, especially as the golden lights from the stage travel up the audience's nodding heads, offering us the feeling of yet more inclusion in the Mynci's unusual, yet exquisitely beautiful world of sound.
It's all no shock really; the Gorky's have been this brilliant and overlooked for years, this tour simply highlighting their strengths as musicians, entertainers and performers of the highest calibre. Whether their idea of playing an acoustic set and then an electric rock-out is the future of rock concerts or not, this show was both wonderful and heavy: a collaboration that only a truly glorious and magnificent band could pull off so effortlessly.
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