From What Is Said To When It's Read
An Examination Of A Life Lived In Service To Post-Rock
It’s officially “post-rock” week in Los Angeles. Each night this week there is a concert fans of the genre could attend. Luminaries like Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Jeff Parker (Tortoise/Isotope 217), and Grails are in town. Obviously I’m being somewhat facetious here, there is no formality whatsoever to this schedule. It just so happens these artists I admire happen to be passing through at the same time. Ten years ago I’d be spending all my hard earned cash to attend all of these shows.
Times have changed, though. The only band I saw this week was Mogwai. This marked the first time I’ve seen them live since 2019, when they played Psycho Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. It was my twelfth (!!!) time seeing them live, and it actually turned out to be an emotional night for yours truly. To understand why takes some explaining.
The year is 2002. I’m attending the University Of Vermont and having a pretty rough go of it. From August 27th until May 10th I manage to keep my academic scholarship while maintaining close to zero friendships, losing 30 pounds, and generally bumming around Burlington playing open mic nights and seeing as many concerts as possible.
Access to college radio, new people, and blazing internet speeds also helped expand my musical palate. The biggest discoveries I made that year were records like I See A Darkness by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Leaves Turn Inside You by Unwound, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and the then-newly-released Rock Action by Mogwai. Whatever I had been listening to as I exited high school — some combination of Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Weezer, and Smashing Pumpkins — were cast aside for newfound affections.
My concert calendar my freshman year looked incredibly collegiate compared to the kinds of shows I saw in high school. The first time I walked to Higher Ground in Winooski was to see The Moldy Peaches and Tenacious D. Other shows that year — some definitely more memorable than others — included Ween on Halloween at the University gymnasium, Black Star (at SOB's in NYC), Interpol and Ash at the Bowery Ballroom, System Of A Down and Clutch up in Montreal (!!), The Beta Band, Sonic Youth in Central Park, American Analog Set at the Knitting Factory…and Mogwai at the Warsaw in Brooklyn.
May 21st, 2002. I remember going into the city with Ilya. We popped some Valium for fun before the show. I remember feeling giddy by just how loud it was (also the Valium). I think I instantly declared it one of the greatest concerts I’d ever seen. I knew all the songs except two (which would later appear on Happy Songs For Happy People). The only bummer? I’d been reading recent reviews on the band’s best fan site Bright Light! and knew from magazine articles that “My Father My King” was their usual encore, and at Warsaw they closed their set with “New Paths To Helicon, Pt. 1” and “Like Herod.” So I didn’t get to hear my favorite song.
As it turned out, the performance of “Like Herod” at Warsaw became a local legend because, well… I’ll let a reviewer from Bright Light! re-tell it:
from david something:
right before the ultra-loud part of 'like herod' came in, a fellow somewhere in the crowd yelled 'don't do it!'. a large number of people (including some band members) burst out laughing. rather amusing. after the show i heard quite a few exiting concert-goers saying 'don't do it' back and forth to each other in between their giggling.
very pretty sounds.
A week later, Ian saw them in Montreal and they played “My Father My King”. I was enraged and jealous. I decided that I would see Mogwai every time they came to town until I could hear it myself.
The next time the band came to New York was at Irving Plaza in June of 2003, supported by Japanther. Ian and I both went. The encore that night was “Christmas Steps” and “New Paths To Helicon, Pt. 1”. I photographed the show, as was my wont at the time. I scored a setlist from Stuart, as well. My review was featured on Bright Light!, marking one of my first bylines outside of a college newspaper.
In 2004 Mogwai came back to the New York area as part of the Curiosa festival, with Muse and Interpol and The Rapture and The Cure (and others). They didn’t play “My Father My King,” but they closed the set with “Like Herod,” and Ian and I shouted “Don’t do it!” to keep the New York-area tradition alive. I like to think I remember the band cracking smiles.
From there it was TLA in Philly in 2003, Webster Hall in 2006, the Wiltern in 2008 (where I again shouted “Don’t do it!” during “Like Herod” but received only nasty looks from the people around me), the Mayan in 2011, The Fonda in 2012, The El Rey in 2014, the Belasco in 2017, Psycho Las Vegas in 2019 (where I shouted “Don’t do it!” during “Like Herod” and I’m 85% confident they heard)…and finally this past Tuesday night at the Bellwether here in Los Angeles.
Dave Pajo opened the night with a short set of originals and covers. In addition to covers of “Chivalry” (Mekons) and “‘Cept You” (Bob Dylan), I could pick out an instrumental rendition of “Ten More Days” which sounded very pretty. I’ve always loved that song, it’s one of my favorites of his post-Papa M recordings where he started going by either his full name or just “Pajo”. Those two records — the self-titled one and 1968 — are worth your attention if you haven’t heard them or sat with them for a while. I haven’t seen Pajo live in quite a few years, but he seemed to be in very good spirits. He was chatty between songs, way more than I ever remember him bantering back in the day. Was I secretly hoping he’d join Mogwai for “Take Me Somewhere Nice" during their set? Of course! Was I let down he didn’t? Only slightly.
Mogwai took the stage and opened with “God Gets You Back,” the first track on their new LP. Their set included older cuts like “Kids Will Be Skeletons,” “Cody,” “New Paths To Helicon, Pt. 1” and “Like Herod” (I didn’t shout, I was too far away). I spent more time than I’d like to admit wondering what the encore was going to be, and whether or not I could discern any clues from the rest of the songs as to which direction they were headed.
In the days leading up to this show, I took it upon myself to post several times on Bluesky about my 0-11 record on hearing “My Father My King” live. I wrote a direct plea to Stuart. I studied their setlists each night of the tour, and tried to calculate whether they were on or off track to play it in LA. In San Francisco, they played it. I tried to cope with my impending doom by crying out for anyone to hear and take pity on me. I mentioned the band directly in one screed. I talked Christine’s ear off about it the entire drive over to the Bellwether. I probably talked her ear off during the show about it too, who knows!
And then, at about 10:19pm — just before the band re-took the stage for their encore — one of their roadies walked out and picked up Barry’s guitar. He strummed. Was that open-D tuning I heard?! Better not say anything. Better not jinx it. The band picked up their instruments.
“IT HAPPENED!” I squealed to Christine, for some reason speaking in the past tense about something that was occurring in real time. I raced from the bar around to the side of the stage so I could soak in the moment. Tears welling up in my eyes, I let the wall of noise wash over me. It felt like the culmination of my life’s work, only it wasn’t my life’s work. It was someone else’s work, and I was just freeloading. Twelve shows in 23 years across several states, and I could finally say I got to hear my favorite song live. It’s Thursday night as I write this, and I am still riding the high, 48 hours later. I only wish I had gotten a setlist off the stage as proof that it really happened. When I’m old and grey, and my brain has turned to mush, it’d be nice to have an object to look at when I’m comatose and drooling and can’t remember any moments from my life that brought me joy.
Almost immediately after the show ended, a kind soul responded to my Bluesky post with a curt little “Weren’t you so glad to be wrong?!” and honestly no social interaction with a complete stranger online has ever made me smile more. I posted the above photo of Stuart with a thank you to the band, and he “liked” it, which I’ve taken to mean he heard my pleas an answered. This, I assume, gives me carte blanche to make demands of anyone across the entire spectrum of arts/entertainment and expect they’ll do exactly as I say. From now on.
Ironically, Mogwai isn’t the only band with a favorite song I’ve never heard live. And — wouldn’t you know it — one of those bands was playing the exact same venue as Mogwai the next night!
The first Godspeed You! Black Emperor album I ever purchased was Slow Riot For A New Zero Kanada, an EP with Hebrew lettering on the cover that intrigued me as it stared up at me from the CD bin at Pure Pop in Burlington. The ‘A’ side of that record, “Moya,” was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. I must have listened to that song a thousand times walking around Burlington in 2002. I’d still argue it is my favorite song of theirs to this day, and I’ve never once heard it live. I’ve seen Godspeed like, twenty times and I’ve never heard it. In fact, the one time I had a chance to hear it I got sick at the venue and had to drive home before the encore. This was back in 2003. The band played four nights in New York, twice in Manhattan and twice in Brooklyn. On the first show in Brooklyn (also at Warsaw!) I got threw up during “9-15-00” and had to drive myself home to my mom’s house in New Jersey. The encore that night? “Moya”. They didn’t play it at any of the other three NYC shows. Nor did they play it a month earlier in Philly. Then they went on a seven year hiatus. They didn’t play it at the Fonda in LA in 2011 or 2013, or the Wiltern in 2018, or Psycho Las Vegas in 2019. And guess what? THEY DIDN’T PLAY IT ON WEDNESDAY AT THE BELLWETHER. I will never hear “Moya” live. Ever. I will die before I get to hear it.
That said, I’m incredibly lucky to have seen some remarkable Godspeed sets. Yeah, I’ve never heard “Moya.” But I heard “The Dead Flag Blues (outro)” on the second night at Warsaw. It was jaw-dropping. I still think about it to this day. The band hasn’t played that live since 2003. Same with “Motherfucker=Redeemer.”
And Mogwai? It might have taken me 23 years to see “My Father My King” but I got to see them play “Star Wars” at my first show ever. That song was only ever on an obscure compilation CD and they played seven times in a two week period in 2002 and haven’t played it since.
If anything, I’ve been spoiled by the amount of life-affirming/life-changing concerts I’ve attended. Maybe I should be sharing more of my old recordings and photos in this space. You know, so that I have more tangible objects to look at when I’m old and grey, and my brain has turned to mush.
As for Godspeed and Mogwai, they’ve given me an idea for a fresh mix tape. Stay tuned…