Photo credit: Melissa Miller
As nebulous, or at times even nonexistent, as its borders may seem, post-rock is a genre that seems to inspire an almost religious adherence amongst its fans, one where tight-knit passionate communities somehow coalesce around loose, experimental sounds without the benefit of easily communicable signifiers. It is of course hard to divine exactly what alchemy leads to this kind of capital-C cult following in the post-rock world (where it’s easy to slip into alienating pretension), but there are probably few better examples of its effect than creatively punctuated Canadian outfit Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Their oeuvre might be rather slim, and interrupted by a decade-long hiatus, but its impact can be seen in their eclectic legions of followers, many of whom braved frigid temperatures and significant ticket prices to pack into the Turner Hall Ballroom Friday night.
Like one might expect from a group as adventurous as GY!BE is, they boasted an opening act that was interesting enough to turn up early for. In this case it was Xylouris White, the border-crossing duo of prolific Cretan lute player George Xylouris, infamous for once staying onstage for 18 hours straight, and Australian drummer Jim White, who’s worked with everyone from Nick Cave to Cat Power. The sound they create together, steeped in traditional Greek music but also deceptively jazzy and frayed with psychedelia, is entrancing but also somewhat thin given the sparse instrumentation. They were positively, if politely, received by the crowd, who were distracted staking out spots and, beyond being uniformly caucasian, noticeably shared little else in common, as if they had all defected from other subcultures specifically for this show.
Dimming lights and a low hum announced the ensemble’s arrival, and as each of the band members filtered onstage, adding to the churning drone, a bank of film projectors flickered to life, too, at first just shadows on celluloid. After a full 15 minutes, the dramatic, minimalist tension crescendoed and the band broke into more dynamic material, the film loops focusing into more recognizable shapes as well. From there they unfurled a stunning, seamless set, one mostly distilled from the two loquaciously titled studio albums they’ve released since their return in 2012. Eventually the players drifted away, leaving just the hum as the filmstrips similarly dissolved, appearing to burn away under the heat of the bulb. As the house lights went up it was easy to see why people follow them so fervently.
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