Terrastock 2006 Report [Part III]

Continued from Part II

Although I missed the bands that played in the earlier part of the afternoon, including LARKIN GRIMM, an up-and-coming folk singer based in the Providence area, I still managed to see a lot of music on the last day of the festival.

BRIDGET ST. JOHN, a legendary UK folk singer who released three records on JOHN PEEL’s short-lived Dandelion label in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, played an unbelievable set which ranged from her takes on BOB DYLAN’s “Just Like a Woman” and DONOVAN’s “Mellow Yellow” to more modern ditties like a DEVENDRA BANHART song that I can’t recall the name of. However, the real highlight of her set was an incredibly moving version of an anti-war song that really set me and the rest of the audience on edge. Seated as we were in chairs, it was a delight to hear her beautiful voice and articulate playing. I wasn’t familiar at all with her music before this show, but her set made me look for her records afterwards, which is always a good sign.

After her set, our plan was to get food at the Taqueria inside of AS220, but they had just closed, perhaps because they had run out of the food that they had been serving constantly to festival-goers all weekend. Thus, we ended up going out in the pouring rain to grab a few slices of pizza, luckily coming back just in time to see LIGHTNING BOLT. I’d heard much about this Providence-based duo over the years, but I’d never actually heard them before. They’re a bass and drums instrumental noise duo who play loudly, intensely and fast. In fact, the intensity level is such that one often forgets the intricacies of the arrangements going on underneath. Their modus operandi is that they don’t play on stages. I hear there’s a DVD floating around of them playing in someone’s kitchen.

Regardless, that meant that they set up their equipment on the floor of the Pell-Chaffee Center, so the only people who could see them were those who stood right near them. I know that it was probably intended to symbolize their equality with the audience, but in truth it was a rather pointless and annoying gesture because of the fact that I could barely see them! Thus, we went all the way up the stairs and watched them from an enclosed balcony. The view was incredible (you could actually see them playing), but of course the sound wasn’t anywhere near as good all the way up top. Regardless, Lightning Bolt’s balls-out intensity really impressed me, and it also seemed to impress a fair amount of their young local fans, who even moshed and crowd-surfed during their set.

After a soothing set of psychedelic folk from Providence-based singer MARISSA NADLER, which provided a sharp contrast to Lightning Bolt’s noise terror, we had to wait 15 minutes outside (though fortunately it was only drizzling at this point) before they let us back in the Pell-Chaffee Center to see the legendary Japanese band GHOST. At every other point during the festival’s three days, pass-holders could move in and out of both main performance centers at will, but since Ghost took a lot of time to set up their equipment and soundcheck, everyone was kept out of the bigger space until they were ready to go. Thus, they went on at 10:00 PM or so when they were scheduled to go on at 9:15, and people were understandably upset.

You know what, though? It didn’t matter. They had a gong, theremin (which looked like an empty snowglobe attached to a long Slinkee) and some sort of xylophone/vibraphone hybrid that had pipes coming out of it, so just based on the instrumentation alone, you knew it was gonna be good! And was it ever! Ghost is one of the tightest and most intense bands I’ve ever seen. The second song they played sounded like a Mongolian death march, and the rest of their set alternated between early ‘70s-sounding prog-rock, reminiscent of KING CRIMSON, and more experimental/improv pieces. All of it was excellent.

It was one of those rare instances when a band whose music I hadn’t heard before just blew me away with their intensity, musicianship and skill. Supposedly this was slated to be Ghost’s last show ever in the US. If this is the case, then they really went out with a bang.