Only Connect: Plaid / Coil / Mouse on Mars
April 29th, 2002 by freddie96
Plaid, Coil & Mouse on Mars
Live @ Only Connect
The Barbican, London
Saturday 27th April 2002
I’d been so looking forward to this I’d almost forgot.
It’s a dull Saturday evening as I plot my way through misty rain into the ‘Logans Run’ world that is the Barbican. I’ve come to see a concert based on a version of the future.
As a bridge between the excellent ‘Only Connect’ series and the forthcoming ‘Game on’ exhibition, Plaid, Coil and Mouse on Mars were set the task of building performances based on computer gaming, computer culture and the concept of play.
Straight in with money, it’s Plaid, ably abetted by bluespoon visuals. Images come thick and fast as we are treated to a rthymic shakedown of funky proportions. External lifts, hexagon suns and a visit to the dentist are all part of the trip, apart from when you were travelling through amorphous 3D tonal blobs. No really. These guys should have their own TV channel. Along with the now trademark PlaidCam ™, we could join the boys in their work, pressing all the right buttons at all the right times.
We get a quick break to slake our thirst and then we’re back in for Coil. Now here’s a band I didn’t know much about when I went in but they’re now a band I need to know a lot more about. Theatre is now the order of the day and although the accompanying visuals are hypnotic and organic your eyes and ears are glued to the stage. Yes, they are wearing mad white fluffy
costumes. Yes, that is a hurdy-gurdy, jamming into a deep house groove. And getting away with it. This performance got you moving, thinking and wondering. Dramatic footage of life in a Russian prison was underpinned with the most beautiful, plaintive singing and music. Swiftly followed by a warning to ‘beware, beware the hair of Cher’. Bamboozled but moved we await the Germans.
Mouse on Mars close the show, taking the ethos of the evening to its logical conclusion, the first half hour of their set is composed of work built from computer game sound and music. Heavy, fast and deep at times, I couldn’t help but feel that if I had been witness to this set in the enclosed fug of a club, I would have been dancing my nuts off. However after the stimulus of Coil, the pyrotechnics of Plaid and the good-natured vibe of the crowd, my happiness registers were full. They were good, but left less of an impression.
So the evening winds down and we get a few drinks in at the after show on Barbican level –1. Great night, great concert and one to remember as I climb into a taxi. Silver, of course.
John Heery
