Ah the Cube! What fun. Yesterday evening I saw Sunburned Hand of the Man in an evening of what could only be described as pure theatre. The night saw a selection of projects by members of the musical collective including a performance piece and culminating in an ecstatic performance by Suburned Hand themselves and the showing of a 22 minute 1968 psychedelic film by Ira Cohen entitled "The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda" rescored by the group. The whole evening was compered in a humourous and unprententious manner reminiscent of something that may have been seen at the commune in "Easy Rider". Obviouly these guys are heavily into the communal organisation thing popularised in the 60s but perhaps with a little more financial savvy, though still seat of the pants stuff. Another highlight for me was the music provided to listen to by Keith Wood (music under the name of Hush Arbors). I got to listen to a recording from vinyl to CD of the solo album of John Phillips (from the Mamas and the Papas), sun drenched, drug inspired simple tales of woe but with a comforting feeling.
First up were Bridge of Trust a slow building compote of subdued noise combining delicate guitar, violin and synthwork. It was performed seated or hunched on the floor with rocking movements bringing to mind the comfort and muffled sound inside the womb (based on my memory of those fateful 9 months anyway ;-)).
Then Mark Orleans played under the name the Ozone Layer described as "New Orleans crossed with Katrina...cold black heat inside his heart". After an amusing false start with getting the Line 6 delay pedal to work the piece consisted of looped out of tune piano, warped tape voices with lashings of whistles and recorder and plenty of onstage humping segueing into some searing picked guitar action. The next song was a bluesy, jokey number written the night before "from a pile of vomit" entreating us to "lick the falcon".
After this came The Clear People, a hilarious Pythonesque collection of battered samples, clattered mike stand legs, bells and muttered cartoony vocals. "I can't come to Christmas dinner, I'm so high...SURPRISE!"
As you may have gathered from my intro comments I am a big fan of Keith Wood and his Hush Arbors project . He's a really great guitarist and my toes were a tappin on the back of the seats at the hard, bluesy, folky stuff he came out with. I only wish he'd played more.
Man Cry was built up throughout the evening as being a descent into the darker side of the soul and then undercut when it came to it. It consisted of a series of cards with put downs on them being read to the members of the troupe in turn. Each member sat on a chair, received their news and then cryed and bemoaned their fate before having water thrown on them. It was a funny experience and though something of a sending up of serious thespishness it did have something of a truth of emotion to it.
When Sunburned Hand came to play it was a wondrous droning, noisy, throbbing, chaotic thing of beauty. All swopped instruments, climbing about the stage with an organic, oil in water like back projection adding to the slow burning nature of the set. I think everyone there was agreed it was a great job and the addition of the rescored film screening afterwards was the icing on the cake. The film had a real sense of claustrophobia with a motley cast of performers representing partially mythical characters and partially Oriental denizens of an opium den. Face paints abounded as did colourful costumes, the unwrapping of indeterminate parcels and funhouse mirrorlike image distortions. This gradually gave way to the protagonists finding themselves outside where they danced ritually around in a sunlit field. It is difficult to give an accurate description on only one viewing as the imagery is so dense it requires repeated watching, something I intend to do as it is apparently being released on DVD with the troupes rescoring. The rescore itself was suitably meandering and contained a number of oriental sounding instruments and occasional flicks of a lighter as the opium pipes were lit. Apparently the original score for the film was by early Velvet Underground drummer and poet Angus MacLise and it contained lots of heavy drumming. It is available to buy on CD so hunt it out if you wish. All in all a fantastic evening, left me feeling good inside.
Sunburned Hand Slideshow
Sunburned Hand of the Man website
On a more personal note my friend John from Swindon was there but sadly had to run off before the end as he had to catch the last train back. Damn that public transport!! Also this morning I went for a great walk down by the river in the woods and heard some woodpeckers tap tap tapping on the trees. I took some phone pics and present them here for your delight and delictation.
Branches
Shadows
Building
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