Seeing The Coral on Saturday night was a revelatory experience for me. Not the band so much – they were as warm and fulfilling as expected, a bit like getting into a bathtub filled with your favourite winter soup. No, the revelation was that it was my first – and possibly my last – all-seater gig.
I’ll say this for The Lowry in Salford Quays: the acoustics are outrageously good. The room is full of strangely-suspended baffles and oddly-angled appendages, and has clearly been designed by computer to make every spot in there the perfect listening space.
The downside is that there is no room for deviation from the plan, so everyone has to remain seated at all times.
A seated gig is a weird thing to behold, especially from my viewpoint, high up in the gods: hundreds of people, fighting against their cushioned velveteen restraints, twitching and jerking at the music, clearly wishing they were standing and dancing.
There are bands for whom a sitting gig would suit, but The Coral are not one of them. Maybe Philadelphia’s Post Post, sharp, ethereal and lithe, could pull off such an event. Certainly I was lulled into a quasi-snooze-like state with their hypnotically soft sounds, which gently loop into Mobius Strips of delicious, pillowy bliss.
I’m not sure if the band’s name draws from some hazy insight into their influences – are they post-post-rock? – and frankly, I don’t care. Architects yearns, aches and urges, and we listeners latch on and follow suit, filling in the gaps, aligning emotions and losing thoughts by gazing into the middle distance.
Post Post have achieved the rarest of feats: an actual emotional attachment to their audience. And if that audience were penned into rows of seats before them, they might never leave of their own volition. Blissful and hypnotic.
Thanks, as always, to Peter at the always-excellent Crushing Krisis blog.
Dude, Post Post is SO not a sitting band. I know the music has some ethereal qualities, but I don’t think the lead singer/guitarist stopped moving a single time in the set – even when things took a slightly shoe-gaze turn. Live they were much more reminiscent of Built to Spill or Thao w/the Get Down Stay Down.
But I’m glad you liked them! I can’t wait for their new EP next month.
Interesting, though, how a band can project such dissenting images live and on the record. We put banter on our rehearsal discs partially so that the personality comes through (even though I categorically hate chat/skit tracks).
Peter, I’m always happy to be corrected by you. Funnily enough, having heard their songs, I can readily imagine how Post Post could become noiseniks on stage, and in many ways, I’m glad to hear it.
I, like you, am always happy to hear a glimpse of the ‘real’ band on record, though, also like you, bemoan the existence of skit tracks. I blame ‘3 Feet High and Rising’. Skit tracks have never been funny.
A pleasure to hear from you, as always.