13 Blues For 13 Moons

Petals/Blue Shift/Heart Yeah!/A Middle Sex/Naomi @ The Cricketer's Arms, Sheffield 01/05
Josh T Pearson/A Silver Mt Zion @ Corporation, Sheffield 02/05

Most people will probably know of Silver Mt Zion (or Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra And Tra-la-la Band as they call themselves now) as that band with people from Godspeed in; it's a shame that they'll probably never be considered as a completely separate band regardless of the quality or quantity of their own material. Recent Silver Mt Zion records have seen more emphasis placed on vocals, almost to the point of sounding like folk songs, moving further away from post-rock genre they partly helped to create. Having said that, they can still bust out an awesome wall of noise when they want to. Thanks to a surprisingly good sound at Corp, the post-rock drone of "Take These Hands And Throw Them In The River" was clear and driving rather than a big fuzzy mess, whilst the quiet sections of the newer material wasn't plagued by any hissing or feedback or people talking. To add to their not-Godspeed anymore vibe, Efrim and co were fairly talkative, joking about Tescos and expensive belts. Unfortunately, due to a club night or "teenage date-rape party", Silver Mt Zion had to cut their set short. Because playing for an hour and forty-five minutes just isn't enough.

Josh T Pearson was supposed to be doing a set, but with him turning up late and the aforementioned curfew, he only had time to play one song. Probably would have been good if he'd played for longer, but it was too hard to judge on the one song.

Tuesday saw the most average "noise" gig I've ever been to. One act consisted of a woman playing a violin really badly for 5 minutes. Heart Yeah! were pretty good, although not their best. They need more rave sirens. One the most interesting points of the night was the first band having two amps facing each other. When directional feedback is a highlight of a gig, it's never a good sign.