God Is An Astronaut at Vicar Street by Kieran Frost

 God Is An Astronaut at Vicar Street on 15th Decembe 2012

God Is An Astronaut celebrated their 10 year anniversary in Vicar Street on Saturday. The largely instrumental post-rock group have been very prolific in this time, releasing five albums, and announced at the show that a new album is due to be released next year.

Support band Meltybrains? were a highly unusual, yet impressive band. Guitars were replaced with a violin and some very sophisticated basslines. The band’s on-stage presence was engaging, and their sound was very exotic and other-worldly.  The songs were fun, the lyrics quirky, and the vocals pleasant and harmonious. Overall, a fine performance from a promising band.

God Is An Astronaut started off their set with a beautiful atmosphere-building riff, before taking off powerfully into an intense soundscape. Most of their songs follow this framework of a recurring riff that builds up into a strong climax. Vocals are used merely as another instrument, if at all, but do provide a ghostly effect on From The Dust To The Beyond. The songs manage to sound very emotional, even without vocals and lyrics, and combined with the slow build-ups, the songs have a very epic quality. However, it feels like every song follows this same pattern. Each song takes you on a long journey, and while this is enjoyable, it does begin to feel a bit repetitive when used in every song, and eventually the listener just feels musically exhausted. Not that what the band do is bad, there just doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of variety in the songs.

The band go off the stage before the encore, and the break allows the crowd to digest the sonic feast they had just witnessed. The band seemed refreshed after the break also, and the songs were more exciting during the encore. Fire Flies and Route 666 was full of power and intensity, while All Is Violent All Is Bright was the best song of the night. The band interacted well with the crowd throughout the show, thanking them for their support and talking a little about the origin of the songs. The band’s performance was energetic and expressive, and the light show really added to the overall experience. God Is An Astronaut impressed, despite the similarity in some of their songs.

 

God Is An Astronaut Photo Gallery

Photos: Kieran Frost