Godflesh, Cut Hands & Pharmakon @ Irving Plaza on 4/10/14
Last night, wifey took me out for a night of industrial/noise lovin’ at Irving Plaza. She had gotten us tickets for Godflesh last year, but the tour got cancelled due to visa problems. That all got straightened out and we were able to see them live for the 2nd time – our first was at the 2013 Maryland Deathfest. They honored the tickets that were purchased last year too!
The show was great. Irving isn’t huge, so its just personal enough – and we were right up at the stage, so everything was about 5 feet away – which is really helpful when you get to my age.
The opener was an artist called Pharmakon. Its a solo project from a chick named Margaret Chardiet, from NYC. We both loved her sound. She surrounded herself with a bunch of electronic devices that I’m not familiar with and did a bunch of screaming and beating out rhythms with her hands and later with drumsticks into what looked like an electronic washboard. She looped the sounds, tinkered with gadgets and erupted with agonized, screamed vocals that strongly remind me of Michael Gira from Swans (which is a good thing). She’s someone to follow. It was so much like early Godflesh crossed with early Swans. Her set was around 20-25 minutes.
 Pharmakon |
 Cut Hands |
Next up came Cut Hands – another solo-act from an older British guy named William Bennett. The sound was electronic/noise coupled with African beats. The visual show going on behind was mesmerizing. I really dug his percussive pieces a lot – repetitive tribal rhythm built with layered percussive sounds. If he’s back in NY again, I’m definitely going to try to see him. I think his set was around an hour.
I’ll probably write a little more about these two acts later, when I’ve investigated them more. But, on to Godflesh.
Mortal Equality 