Dan Hillier
Early shows: a nightmare for most bands. Not only do they entail the infamous disco load out, but it also comes with the quiet worry that most punters won’t be aware that doors will be earlier than the 7pm standard. Unfortunately, it appears Cardiff hasn’t got the memo regarding everything kicking off at 6.30pm sharp tonight; as God Alone walk on stage, they begin their set to an audience of five punters. Still, that doesn’t stop the Cork noise rabble-rousers being the utter maniacs they are live.
Performing material from their upcoming album The Beep Test and choice cuts their 2022 debut ETC, God Alone are utterly feral, prowling lurching and flailing around the stage to their danceable if not bizarre mathy noise rock. Even ‘Kung Fu Treachery’ see’s the band forgo their instruments to perform high kicks and the likes mid set, something that totally bemuses those walking into the room mid proceedings. Still, it’s impossible not to love God Alone. In an age where music is a commodity and tailored for profits and algorithms, the Cork lads completely refuse to comply with both convention and what should be expected from an opening set for an early doors show.
By the time Waldo’s Gift touch stage Clwb Ifor Bach has filled out nicely. Understandably so though; this band have quickly earned themselves a nice little reputation for themselves in the math and post rock scene recently following sets at Portals, ArcTanGent and the like. There’s undoubtedly an air of hype in this room pre set, and as the Bristol trio fly into material from their most recent record Malcom’s Law, it’s clear to see why many have started to dot on this band. Performing a kind of instrumental rock that’s loose and incorporates the dexterous impulsivity of jazz, Waldo’s Gift are an utter joy to watch live.
As the trio flow through a set that feels essentially fluid and musically liquid in nature, it becomes clear that the contrast between improvisation and tightly-wound control is the core crux of this band. It would be easy to dub this a post rock set, but truthfully, it’s more post jazz than anything else, especially with a totally improved song being one of the set’s main highlights. Genuinely, off the back of this set, it wouldn’t be too hyperbolic to say that not since the emergence of Scaler that we’ve seen a live band challenge the very essence of what post rock is or can be with seemingly little effort. This is jazz for the post rock inclined, and judging from this set and it’s respective reaction, a band that are no doubt set to be one of the UK’s big instrumental bands in the coming years.
This ever so slightly cosy 250 capacity room may be a touch removed from the last venue tonight’s headliners played around these parts (the 1000+ cap cavern that is the now the sadly shuttered Marble Factory across the estuary in Bristol) but such trivial concerns regarding capacity clearly aren’t on the collective mind of And So I Watch You From Afar tonight. Opening their set with both parts of ‘Mother Belfast’ before flying through the likes of ‘Mullany’, ‘A Slow Unfolding Of Wings’ and a most punchy rendition of ‘Wasps’, Belfast’s finest sound phenomenal – and unlike most stereotypical perceptions of this genre – absolutely fun as hell. Performing to a now packed Clwb that’s suitably hooch’d up and ready all the antics that a Friday night in Cardiff invites, ASIWYFA again reaffirm their standing as the post rock band for those who don’t entertain the idea of post rock.
Whilst the material forming tonight’s setlist still absolutely contains the composure, restraint and watertight skill that’s synonymous with post rock, they go down an absolute peach with those here wanting something rowdy and unruly to prep them for the a night out in the Welsh capital. There’s nowt stoicism or po-faced placidity here in this room, just energy and liveliness, especially with spirited nature of the likes of ‘North Coast Megafuana’ and the wonderfully titled ‘BEAUTIFULUNIVERSEMASTERCHAMPION’ radiating a kind of energy often absent in shows of this genre. Even the typically wistful ‘Seven Billion People All Alive at Once’ feels reenergised and tailored for a high-energy environment that’s often at ends with instrumental music as a whole. If anything, this set once again asserts And So I Watch You From Afar’s standing as a band unparalleled within their scene; there’s simply no over act within the upper echelons of post rock that are able to manifest and maintain high octane energy or even encourage pit activity like this.
Of course though, it’s the closing ‘Set Guitars To Kill’ and the sun-kissed finale of ‘Big Things Do Remarkable’ that makes all of this inarguable. As the set ends and all stream onto Womanby Street humming that iconic ear-worming refrain from the aforementioned closer, tonight once again see’s And So I Watch You From Afar being possibly the only post rock band on the planet able to soundtrack the opening of a night dedicated to revelry and simply getting right on it.