Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 19th May 2025
On support tonight, Maud The Moth’s quite remarkable album sound is brought to life in quite different ways. At one point she appears to be using a crisp packet or dog-poo bag as a percussion instrument. Looping builds surprising vocal patterns and the solo piano is virtuoso. Her short set merely sets the scene for her hoped-for return.
Smiling ruefully as he celebrates his first gig in Leeds since what he calls “the before-times”, Dylan Carlson is almost on chatty form between songs, looking less edgy and dodgy behind his white beard. But the guitar is as menacing and threatening as before, a juggernaut of sustained volume howling at you. In his mid-fifties, Carlson has achieved beloved elder statesman status, filling The Brudenell to capacity.
The sound is as pulverising as ever, with bass and guitar amped to the point that a mere tap will create waves of sustained droning sound, pulsing and elbowing you in the ear. Patches of feedback similarly rough-house the senses as the awesomely slow pummelling begins. Adrienne Rich on drums plays like no-one else, slow, behind the beat like a comment; on the beat like a punishment beating you deserved. The concentration on her face as she spaces those poundings tells it all. Meanwhile Bill Herzog’s bass throbs and moans alongside the lead instrument.
We are here, of course, for the mega-stately riffs of Dylan Carlson, as he pushes his pedals to maximum and hammers a chord as loud and straight as he can. An hour and a half sees a mere nine or so pieces played and thoroughly exploited. Mixing old and new, Carlson plays with his setlist, contrasting ‘Raiford’s machine-like start with the fiddly ‘And The Bees Made Honey’. The sweet notes of ‘Old Black’ fall amongst howling sustain and drone, while ‘Lens Of The Unrectified Night’, though described as a “country-prog song” is a heavier-than-lead crushing game of volume.
The set flashes by painfully slowly yet quicker than a bullet as the ears soak in the rare and special drone and volume attack that Earth have made their own.
https://www.vanguard-online.co.uk/earth-live-brudenell-social-club-23rd-feb-2015/