with a buzz in his ears mr. mammoth listens endlessly: don't look back

from the start of david pajo's bewitching riff in "breadcrumb trail," it is instantly obvious that spiderland is no ordinary album - that's why i went to go see slint perform it last night in glasgow. i'd never before been to a don't look back concert, and i had never really thought about how odd it would be; after all, even when you see a band with only an EP, they don't play the songs in order - a live show deliberately disrupts the order and regularity of an album, injecting a new sense of vitality into songs heard a thousand times through headphones. but the point of don't look back is to consciously reject the traditional live concert, an idea that i didn't even consider before going to this show. as a result, it was weird, mostly because slint isn't a band anymore - all they play is this album, basically. as isn't even forty minutes long, slint tacked on some extra songs at the end, giving us a little more punch for our pounds, but fundamentally, slint only exists now as a vehicle for spiderland's live performance.

spiderland did feel like a performance more than a concert - the difference being attending a classical recitation or watching the holy steady shred in front of you. slint played their opus (which they themselves must be sick to death of) with detached perfection, delivering a show that was in no way different than the album's i've listened to so many times (i took two movies, of "don, aman," and "washer," and their lengths are less than ten seconds different than the studio versions). for me, the show was confusing at first - why did the album, which has produced such admiration and emotion in me, suddenly feel so dead? then i realized it was because slint themselves were dead - not literally, of course, but basically in every other sense. these songs which they had written, riddled with seething angst (however reserved), these songs were not played by the band that had written them, but by a band that performed them as an homage. ironically (yet still sadly), slint only came alive, and only for a brief moment, during "good morning captain," spiderland's final track. in fact, i don't believe anyone but vocalist brian mcmahan actually opened their mouths during the show, except for drummer britt walford's guest turn at vocals for "don, aman." the crowd was most appreciative, clapping and whooping at every song, as if they were surprised by what the next one would be, but one clearly got the sense that slint would have played exactly the same whether there were 400 or 4 people at the show. granted, slint's music doesn't necessarily lend itself to much more than restraint, but the extent to which slint went to to ensure the audience knew it was a performance, not a concert, was rather disheartening.

the stage setup was more than a little odd, with mcmahan's mic set almost entirely on stage right, so that he would have been just a profile to anyone in front of him - fortunately, i set up directly in front of paho, so i was able to see the whole band. walford and pajo sat opposite each other in the center of the stage for "don, aman," a nice effect, but one that didn't see to have any discernible purpose. abc's lights were terribly bland, and nearly the entire set was blue and pink, only changing colors very late in the set.

i was a little worried about the length of the show, considering spiderland clocks in at less than forty minutes, but slint tacked on a few songs at the end, namely "glenn" and "rhoda" from their 1994 self-titled ep, and a new song called "king's approach," in which pajo's work with early man is an almost overpowering influence. a long (and very heavy) instrumental jam, "king's approach" really did not communicate any part of the slint aesthetic, and really sounded as if it would be more appropriate at a metal show. because "king's approach" is a new song, rumors have abounded about a reunited slint releasing an album, but there didn't seem to be any serious chemistry between any of its members - they looked pained to even be on the same stage as the others, which must be why there was so much physical distance between them onstage.

all in all, seeing spiderland made me sad. i feel bad for slint, performing the same songs each night in the same order, songs that they wrote sixteen years ago when they were different people in a different place. yet this spiderland tour has none of the excitement of an ordinary "greatest hits" show, just a cold, dead emptiness. yes, the music was superb, but we knew that; what i paid for was a chance to see slint. what i saw was a shell of them, and that is a shame.