Thurston Moore @ Islington Mill, Salford, 3 Mar
Still is an appropriate name for tonight’s opening act. The solo project of Blacklung’s James Moffat, the aptness comes not from his on-stage dynamism as a performer (although granted, motion certainly isn’t the first word that comes to mind when watching a man staring at a desk full of pedals), but from the quietude of the music itself. Guitar tones are warped into drones and left to hang in the air, while eventually a series of minimal beats lends rhythm without force into proceedings: it’s hypnotic and often beautiful. A neat beginning.
By direct contrast, Yossarians are all over the place: a mess of influences from the realm of indie rock/post-punk and very far beyond. There’s a hint of Bunnymen majesty here, a nod to eastern folk influences there (as refracted through the hummable pop of late-period Camper Van Beethoven), a burst into squalling noise everybloodywhere… most importantly, they have songs, hooks and an energy that’s undeniably captivating. Catch them at your convenience before their evidently restless muse takes them to even weirder, more magnificent places: you’ll be glad to say you got on at the ground floor.
And now to tonight’s main course: Islington Mill is packed, and understandably so: it’s difficult not to feel like Thurston Moore is something of a ‘next level’ booking. Tonight’s performance is part of his Watch the Sky collaboration with poet Radieux Radio, a week-long residency and study of the city. Accordingly, the Sonic Youth founder has gathered a collective of local musicians to help create tonight's lengthy composition.
The piece feels at least semi-improvisatory, and as is so often the case with such experiments it constantly feels on a knife edge; sometimes the effects are thrilling – particularly thanks to David McLean’s spiraling saxophone contributions and a powerhouse performance from drummer Andrew Richardson. The anchor to the whole thing, meanwhile, is Gnod's Marlene Ribeiro, whose taut sense of groove and innate appreciation for free-flowing spontaneity is so central to the latest iteration of that band's motorik repetition: it’s an underappreciated skill that keeps things on an even keel, whether the piece threatens to run away with itself or locks into a formidable noise – when it does, incidentally, it’s genuinely sensational.
Still, we’ve not mentioned Thurston himself much here, and in truth his contribution feels somewhat muted, aside from a sparse, scratchy ending which teeters between tension and feeling somewhat exhausting. Some of the audience grow restless (there are murmurs of discontent that occasionally break into audible bickering) – maybe expecting something more along the lines of Goo or Daydream Nation, judging by the nature of their heckles. Perhaps tonight's greatest accomplishment is to show that Greater Manchester’s own sonic adventurers can go toe-to-toe with one of the biggest names in forward-thinking rock music – and emerge as the stars of the show.