So I saw Psychic TV last night and this is my attempt at a review of sorts :
I came in during 4th Sign of the Apocalypse, the singer of which is someone in Genesis’ other band Thee Majesty.
They were good. Laid back groovy experimental coldwave/early industrial style stuff with some cool bass and drum machine sounds. Nice.
http://www.myspace.com/4thsignoftheapocalypse
Afterwards some extremely obnoxious hipster chick came onstage and was playing the same riff on an acoustic guitar for 10 minutes and singing/talking randomly.
Then she did some retarded stand up routine or something baiting the audience by chanting “discipline! discipline!” and yelling at everyone for talking during her abysmal “set”. She ended with an awful high school poetry reading to a chorus of boos and jeers.
I think the whole thing was a joke approved by Gen to piss everyone off before Psychic TV went on.
Gen emerged from the dressing room looking like hell. His/Her face was partially covered in some sloppily applied black paint. The whole band was wearing hideous jean vests with the Psychic TV triple cross on a huge patch on the back.
The set was pretty good. High energy. Lots of jamming and communication among the band members. Gen had very good stage presence and crowd control. And s/he seemed far more comfortable and happy with Psychic TV than when I saw him/her with Throbbing Gristle. It is obvious these guys really enjoy getting together and have jammed a ton.
That said, the set itself was a bit disappointing. I’m not too familiar with the catalog but I have heard the first few albums and been told repeatedly that those are the most important.
I know this group is guilty of wandering across too many genres over the years (from psychedelic to acid house) and releasing far too much mediocre material.
The live show reflected that problem. Some songs were weird spacey jams, with Gen playing a strange electric violin thing. The experimental sound journeys between songs were well executed and they definitely created a sonic environment from which songs emerged.
They also played some more upbeat, punk styled stuff which got the crowd going.
One song in particular was a blatant Pink Floyd ripoff (and not the good kind). Complete with slow tempo, obnoxious endless guitar soloing/wailing and like six sections where the drums would explode with epic tom tom stuff only to bubble down again to a quiet section. Waaay too long and completely unoriginal song. At first I literally thought they were covering “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” or some shit.
More jams and a song which went on forever.
Gen’s vocals were really good (I am a fan) and the band seemed very excited, tight (once they could figure out which song they were going to play next at least lol), energetic and happy to be there.
So it was a mixed bag. No “hits” or even songs I recognized. None of the early stuff or the house/rave stuff either. It was very much a psychedelic set with a few upbeat punk numbers.
I still found it a very enjoyable performance and I respect the band for playing whatever they wanted (and not advertising otherwise like Al Jourgensen) and I pretty much walked in knowing to expect no bones to be thrown to the casual fan so I wasn’t disappointed.
We smoked a joint early on, beckoned by the trippy projections, and I think it saved the night because the endless length of the songs and psychedelic overtones was a perfect cliche complement to my state of mind.
Overall had a good time, though still not really a big fan of this particular project, which I feel lacks quality control and a cohesive or distinct “sound” other than Gen’s larger-than-life presence as a front(wo)man.
Oh, and they had some really cool merch but I was broke.