Music review: Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Star rating: *****
Venue: Playhouse
Montreal collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor arrived for a live set in their own right, following their involvement earlier in the week with the dance piece Monumental.
Even with no other artistic accompaniment, the full Godspeed live show was a sonic monument in its own right, with a force of nature quality, which made grand implicit claims to being some form of soundtrack to our times in the split-screen video backdrop accompanying the music.
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Hide AdWhile slow camera tilts lingered over footage of great glassy buildings under construction and blurry police car lights flashed over slick city streets and the bustle of a hard to glimpse crowd (the faces appeared to be black, lending an undertone of civil rights agitation), songs like Storm and Piss Crowns Are Trebled married electrifying, insistent guitar riffs and drum patterns with noisy string parts.
The effect was virtuosic and as hugely emotional as any classical piece the EIF is likely to host this year.