Chelsea Light Moving at Whelan’s | Review

Chelsea Light Moving at Whelan’s on 16th June 2013

It’s not five months since Thurston Moore and drummer John Moloney last visited Whelan’s for a blistering experimental, improvisational gig that saw them take a brief sojourn from their Chelsea Light Moving activities.

The band is the ex-Sonic Youth frontman’s latest outing, and their eponymous début album saw Moore return to his hardcore, noise-rock roots. This time around Moore and Moloney have a full band, with guitarist Keith Wood and bassist/violinist Samara Lubelski to temper their flights of fancy as they run through material from that release.

First though we have the pleasure of the company of ex-Minutemen bassist Mike Watt, with his latest band Il Sogno Del Marinaio. The trio visited the same venue just three months ago, and this time around it’s the main room in Whelan’s that sees the action. Watt comes on and chats about his stay in Skerries on one of his visits, and produces what appears to be the very train ticket from his wallet, to cheers from the crowd.

Then it’s down to business, as drummer Andrea Belfi sings a melody while Watt and guitarist Stefano Pilia create ambient noise around him. It flourishes into a double time stampede as Pilia slashes his strings with a violin bow. They seem to read each other’s eye signals, no one person leading the charge but all three breaking out and pulling back as the songs demand.

Tribal drum patterns build into wailing rockers and post-rock inflected grooves. Watt playfully spins one of the mini gongs that swivel on a stand towards the drummer’s head, and spends much of the rest of the gig getting the same things out of Belfi’s way. The blues has never been so tumultuous as The Sailor’s Blues; it’s organic and flowing but the band are locked tight no matter which unexpected direction things seem to take. The rhythm section carries it alone for a time, until it suddenly breaks to a halt.

He rams the head of his bass into the floor as Partisan Song ends, and the band continue onwards, with Belfi’s vocal acting as an anchor as the gig winds down. “He broke a string so we’re gonna do a Stooges song” shouts Watt before a primal, impassioned Funhouse that elicits all manner of facial contortions from the bassist. Talk about raw power – this was a savage end to a fantastic set.

Moore and Co amble on to the stage and seem in no hurry, chatting amongst themselves as they leisurely go about setting up. “We’re gonna dedicate this set to Mike Watt” says Moore, before his equipment fails him and he asks jokingly did one of the crowd “fuck around with my shit?”

“Turn it off and on again!” comes the crowd response. Groovy & Linda kicks off the gig, and feedback reigns from the early stages as the song transforms into a double time rocker. Frank O’Hara Hit merits a second start as Moore laughs “You’re out of tune!” to a bandmate that remains unnamed.

Moloney seems to keep Burroughs going when Moore is about to end it; the extension of the song allowing the guitarist to cut loose with some scathing fretwork. He teases metallic whines from the neck as Moloney dishes out unsecured drum fills that lead into Ignited, moving from its extended instrumental front section into a grimy, Sabbath-esque riffing beast. Empires of Time goes out to 13th Floor Elevators’ Roky Erickson. It’s probably the most conventional run-through so far, but no less dense.

The straight ahead punk protest of Lip follows, before a lyric stand makes an appearance. The Ecstasy, a poem by the 16th/17th century poet John Donne – “he’s a punk, and he wrote these words” – is put to music by the band, before they bring things back to the present with “a new song, ‘cos all we have is new songs.” No Go rounds off the set with a short blast of garage rock.

Lubelski has moved to violin for the one song encore, creating a drone over which the rest layer subtle embellishments, building it up with notes and drum taps. It’s a lesson in experimental noise control and texture, and then suddenly… silence. A drone begins anew, this time of a slightly different hue, and suddenly mutates into Staring Statues from ‘Psychic Hearts’. It’s as close as Moore gets to a standard shredding rock guitar solo all night; the song goes out as it came in, with an incessant drone that Moloney punctuates with fills.

Once again, Moore tore Whelan’s up in what was certainly a more structured gig than his last freeform workout, although no less exhilarating. “Chelsea Light Moving…that’s the name of a moving company, I found out today,” Watt told us earlier in the night. We just thought you should know.