I never felt more unsettled yet at peace than after having been sucked in, chewed up, and spit out by Godspeed You! Black Emperor during their March 12 and 13th shows at Brooklyn Steel.

Tashi Dorji and Liberty (Mette Rasmussen) exited their turbulent set, an exposed whirlwind of phrases exchanged between his jangly, roaring prepared guitar doctored with medical tape and her wailing, blaring alto-saxophone, mutes improvised from her inner thigh to what seemed to be paper cups. Then it began. A projected staticky backdrop, from which the scrawled, flashing word “Hope” materialized, appeared as the blue-purple pre-show lighting transitioned to a dusky glowing orange. Violinist Sophie Trudeau and guitarist David Bryant meditatively drifted out from backstage to initiate Hope Drone, GY!BE’s trademark wall of sound opener, a clarion call to arms which the remaining band members then joined.

Hope Drone/Bosses Hang

Night one seamlessly slid from Hope Drone into the triumphantly steady downbeats of Bosses Hang pts. I-III, sobered by Anthem for No State pt. I’s somber and compelling strings, only to return once more to pounding drums, swinging horns, and shrill guitar riffs by pt. III. A beautiful interlude in Fam/Famine provided a necessary respite for yet another build, this time in the form of Undoing a Luciferian Towers. To conclude, the band played through the entirety of Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada, parts of which are another staple of their shows and serve as a reminder of the band’s insurrectionist origins.

If March 12th exhibited a controlled, perhaps even serene Godspeed, the band reared their collective head the next night. The convocational drone rose into Mladic, the epicly Eastern-sounding opener of Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!, followed by set from the new album similar to the previous night’s. Things took a hostile turn as typically placid concert attendees grew tense hearing the iconic xylophone intro to Dead Metheny, Part 2/6 of track no. 3 Providence on F#A#∞, swell into a hunched-over Bryant’s three-note guitar part, over which guitarists and group founders Efrim Menuck and Mike Moya improvised. Coerced by pounding drums, the growing energy in the room was finally unleashed as crowd members moshed, discharging their collective angst for the first and only time between the two nights.

One of David Bryant’s guitars and pedal board.

Both nights culminated in BBF3 and resolved as the song slowly disintegrated into disarray. Each band member successively stood up and walked out, leaving their respective loop to play out, hypothetically, ad infinitum. After a few minutes of sonic chaos, David Bryant, who tripped on his pedal board during his exit, remerged alongside Mike Moya to make slight adjustments and initiate the “where are you going” sample.

Descent into chaos

Godspeed is known to play looped footage during their shows which adds another dimension to the unsettling atmosphere their shows typically manifest. Night one’s cinematic highlight was certainly a looped wildfire scene in which a shadowy form walked under a tree, through the flames, and across the screen until out of view. Both nights shared a troubling, black and white loop of footage of a smoking fighter jet in free fall, but the most prominent filmic moment occurred during night two. A grayscale shot seemingly taken from a helicopter as it circled above a lumbering behemoth figure walking a barren dirt road revived the disconcerting energy of night one.

I have been desperately anticipating a Godspeed tour since I became a serious fan of their music. Listening to their recorded material could not have prepared me for the immersive and transcendent experience of seeing them live for the first time. Though I had forgotten my earplugs the second night, ringing in the ears seemed a triviality in the context of a milestone which my memory cannot duly reconstruct.

Liberty & Tashi Dorji

Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEweQxUKFIo

Album: https://tylerdamon.bandcamp.com/album/to-the-animal-kingdom

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Luciferian Towers: https://godspeedyoublackemperor.bandcamp.com/album/luciferian-towers

Setlist 3/12: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/godspeed-you-black-emperor/2018/brooklyn-steel-brooklyn-ny-5beff380.html

Setlist 3/13: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/godspeed-you-black-emperor/2018/brooklyn-steel-brooklyn-ny-43efeb97.html

Image Courtesy of Godspeed You! Black Emperor/Constellation Records