Gigography : Mogwai, KL Convention Centre, 21/01/09

Greetings! I think the situation has calmed a little, so I feel OK to return with the normal postings.

There’s a bit of difference this time around. It’s a band that I’m not so familiar with. And they are an instrumental band – meaning no lyrics! Genre : post-rock (think epic long guitar assaults). They are from Glasgow, Scotland, and it’s their first time here. To get a bit familiar with them, I got their latest album – Hawk is Howling, and was hooked at the first listen! Even if there’s no lyrics, still, the melody stuck in my head. More about Mogwai here.

I think my gig mate Liz (she went to Travis gig with me too!) summed it up brilliantly, here’s her review:

Quote :
The lights. The colour. The shadows. The music. It all fits so - as cliche as this may sound - perfectly. I have to say Mogwai possibly has a sound to every shade of colour. When the music unites together you don't just get a blend of white but a rainbow of sound! Yes, a rainbow despite having the music that you hear being extremely dark and mysterious, and also at times almost boisterous. This is possibly the first time ever in a gig that I can't tell which instrument played on stage is making which distinct noise that I hear. Why, usually I could pay close attention to only the bass line for a period of time before moving on to the lead guitars for example. On Wednesday night however, try as I may, my attention couldn't just focus on one distinct instrument but instead I get everything in full force. Truly, a night with a wide range of volume and sounds along with the countless (and adorable) "thank you very much" that we got. (Me: That was courtesy of Stuart, he said it 14 times, after each song. And that was the only interaction with the crowd. Doesn’t matter though, let the music do the talking!)

The band plays with such confidence and total concentration on their fellow band mates. For the music that they make, it would certainly require a lot of patience with your fellow band members to make it work and sound like what we experienced that night. My friend commented that they do not look like they were too into their songs like Explosions in the Sky (performed last year, in KL), but instead they seemed really comfortable being on stage.
What an experience, and to be sure it would be one that would be difficult to overcome, in terms of lights and quality of sound! : Unquote

There's also a review by The Star here

As for me, I especially love the quiet moments being climaxed with an explosion of noise, brilliant!

Ooooh yes...we got right in front of the stage, it was awesome!

The only thing that spoiled it was that Mr Canon photographer who blocked my view when Stuart was tweaking the effect knobs /pedals grrrrrr....he was right in front of me! It was also cute that Stuart took a pix of the crowd before the band left the stage :D

It was also the first time I saw someone playing the guitar with a drum stick! Stuart was basically tapping the guitar neck with the drum stick, and it did produce some sounds I'd never imagine can be produced that way! Bizzare, but it worked!


Stuart doing some effects, view blocked by Mr Canon !


Setlist

They played only 14 songs (including 2 encores), but since each song was epic long, the gig lasted for about 1.5 hours

L-R: John (guitar), Barry (guitar, keyboard,vocoder) Dom (bass), Martin (drums), Stuart (guitar & effects)




Dom & Stuart


Dom & Stuart switching each other's instruments

Barry & Stuart

Barry also plays the keyboard (& sings, with a vocoder though, so it's really indecipherable)

Look at the lightings!

More Dom & Stuart