{"id":2956,"date":"2013-09-30T13:53:39","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T13:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/?p=2956"},"modified":"2013-10-10T22:45:23","modified_gmt":"2013-10-10T22:45:23","slug":"mono-all-dayer-the-brudenell-29th-september-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/2013\/09\/30\/mono-all-dayer-the-brudenell-29th-september-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Mono All-Dayer @ The Brudenell 29th September 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

For Sledges 50th birthday this year, he decided we should go to the Mono All-Dayer at the Brudenell. We got there at 4 (as that’s when our flier said it started) to find we’d missed one band already (sorry Tense Men). Starting to drink at 4 in the afternoon is a recipe for disaster at our age but if that’s how a man wants to enjoy reaching his half century, who am I to argue…… some of us (ahem) ended up snoozing to the worlds loudest band ‘White Manna’…..thankfully Mark was on hand to keep notes…..<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A sunny afternoon at the end of September; what better way to spend it than in the Brudenell Social Club watching LOADS of really good bands at an all day mini-festival. \u00a0The Mono festival was quite a canny move on the part of the Brudenell\u2019s management team (that\u2019s Nathan & Charlie the dog), cherry-picking some of the best bands who\u2019d played at the Liverpool Psych Fest on Friday & Saturday, and presenting to us in one handy, bite sized chunk. \u00a0Before we go any further, it\u2019s best pointing out that the definitions of \u2018psych\u2019 and \u2018psychedelic\u2019 are pretty loose; loud guitars, a plethora of effects pedals, rather more reverb on any vocals than would be considered normal and a delight in pushing the songs slightly further than is practical seems to be the broad themes tying these bands together.
\nTake the opening act, Tense Men; a power trio sounding as if they really like the first couple of Wire LPs. \u00a0The songs are choppy, angular and well, tense. \u00a0But psychedelic? \u00a0More post-punk, surely? \u00a0But no matter, they\u2019re very good indeed. \u00a0Tense Men played in the main, or concert, room of the Brudenell, which presumably anyone reading this is familiar with.<\/p>\n

\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

To maximise the amount of music, a second stage had been opened up in the smaller games room, a pleasingly intimate space where you\u2019re at eye level with the performers. \u00a0That\u2019s a polite way of saying there\u2019s no stage. \u00a0Opening here were Soft Walls, a side project of one of Cold Pumas (who\u2019re on later, but I missed). \u00a0There\u2019s a Pete Frame-style family tree in here somewhere based around Cold Pumas & their record label Faux Discx, as quite a few of the bands today are either in the band or on the label, or both, such as Tense Men & Sauna Youth. \u00a0But back to Soft Walls\u2026they turn in a neat line in reverb soaked poppy drone, and look far too young to be at this sort of thing. \u00a0They may have heard a Hookworms record or two as well.<\/p>\n

\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

Back to the big room for the first highlight of the day; all the way from Guadalajara, Mexico, meet Lorelle Meets The Obsolete. \u00a03 chaps grind out a meaty groove with Lorena\u2019s reverb soaked vocals drifting over the top of it\u2026and then they crank things up a notch or two with sound vicious guitars. \u00a0Buried under all that noise are some sweet pop hooks that put this band pretty much head & shoulders above everyone else; and there\u2019s some strong competition for best band of the day. \u00a0So impressive were Lorelle Meets The Obsolete that a planned trip to Manchester the following evening quickly added a visit to the Soup Kitchen to catch them again.<\/p>\n

\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

Over in the games room, highlight #2; the most excellent Kult Country, all the way from\u2026Manchester. \u00a0With a t-shirt over the mic to counteract electric shocks, they crashed through their set with the kind of abandon you don\u2019t see from too many bands these days\u2026well, singer & guitarist Yousif Al-Karaghouli does, and he\u2019s that much of a human dynamo it\u2019s difficult to tell what the rest of the band are doing. \u00a0Band of the day most likely to \u2018do a Hookworms\u2019 and develop a cult (sorry) following.\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

Next up were Merseyside\u2019s Mugstar, who pushed the \u2018psych? \u00a0Really?\u2019 envelope that bit further. \u00a0An instrumental trio, if anything their sound would seem more at home in the artier end of metal along with bands like God Is An Astronaut, Adebisi Shank or Pelican. \u00a0The music suited their appearance; gnarled, muscular, slightly scary. \u00a0As enjoyable as a slap in the face; not for everyone, something of an acquired taste.\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

Sauna Youth are far more accessible; likeable bouncy indie pop smothered in overloaded guitar & distorted male & female co-vocals. \u00a0Are they a Ramones for the psych set? \u00a0Their songs certainly didn\u2019t hang around.\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

Gird your loins, people, for it\u2019s time for Gnod; and Gnod are a very singular experience. \u00a0Psychedelic in the same way Butthole Surfers were, the acid is most definitely bad. \u00a0I\u2019d experienced them live before with a (relatively) straight guitar, bass & drums set up, but it seems they\u2019ve mutated far beyond that. \u00a0Hauling their own PA over the Pennines, a noticeably bigger one than the Brudenell\u2019s, Gnod have ditched most of their conventional instrumentation for a heap of machines, effects, tapes and general gizmos. \u00a0While 5 of them manipulate the electronics, singer (loose term) Neil Von Gnod gives it his all on the floor of the concert room, dragging up lord alone knows what kind of traumas for our entertainment. \u00a0You\u2019re unlikely to come away from this unmoved, but whether that\u2019s towards or away from Gnod is entirely debateable.\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

I missed Carlton Melton\u2019s set. \u00a0The first couple of minutes were noodly drones, and I\u2019d done drone the previous day at the Brudenell. \u00a0From outside, I could hear their sound grow and expand to a mighty Loop-style barrage, but by the time I returned to the games room, it was pretty much rammed. \u00a0My only mis-step of the day, really.\"Mono<\/a>\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

Local heroes Hookworms rocked the main room to its foundations. \u00a0There was much love in the room for them. \u00a0Sadly, they don\u2019t quite do it for me. \u00a0It feels like Hawkwind doing Spacemen 3 covers to these ears. \u00a0Not in itself a bad thing, and it did sound bang on from my vantage point near the door, it\u2019s just I\u2019ve seen it done much better (by the aforementioned Loop for one).\"Mono<\/a>\"Mono<\/a>\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally (after missing Cold Pumas for various reasons), the nominal headliners of the day were American stoner-droners White Manna. \u00a0I say nominal as the crowd had thinned out significantly after Hookworms. \u00a0Pity really, as White Manna were just what the doctor ordered. \u00a0This pack of longhairs were an ideal end to a day of loud guitar riffs, cyclical rhythms and warped vocals because they served up an hour or so of the same, only more so. \u00a0Those left in the audience were bowing down to their perfection of the form. \u00a0OK, so they only really had one song, but it was a good one. \u00a0Here\u2019s hoping for something along similar lines next year\u2026oh hang on, there\u2019s one next month in the form of Octernal. \u00a0The Brudenell continues to do no wrong.
\n\"Mono<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark Pomroy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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For Sledges 50th birthday this year, he decided we should go to the Mono All-Dayer at the Brudenell. We got there at 4 (as that’s when our flier said it started) to find we’d missed one band already (sorry Tense … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gigs-reviews","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2973,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions\/2973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}