Live Report:
Damo Suzuki's Network
- Roubaix - La Cave aux Poètes - October 11 2004
There was a bit of a shock when I picked up this little leaflet last week, catching the blink and you'll miss it name in the middle of all these other dates. I was at college and in all honesty, that obviously meant I wasn't quite awake, something that definitely added to my first impression that I had misread the coming of "Damo Suzuki's Network" the next Monday in my crummy little hometown, once an important textile and industrial hot plate, now reduced to a worrying digit on graphs depicting the rates of unemployment. And yet, three days later I had my tickets in hand, and two more and I was waiting inside the Cave aux Poètes.
After a rather tragicomic incident including a pathetically posturing opening band and a local television team, we sat patiently as we waited for Damo Suzuki and his french sound carriers to set up. And that's when things started getting weird in a good way. I noticed amongst the band a tallish man with abundant facial pilosity, long curly hair and a poncho .
Obviously, it wasn't long before I started making jokes about how the guy from Reynols had gotten confused and had followed Damo inadvertently under the misimpression that they were his band.
That's until I see him plug a strange one-chorded instrument to an effect pedal and rub it frenetically with a bow. And later on place a contact mic inside a plastic bag filled with clothes which he shakes all over the place and throws to the ground and holds to his chest as if it were his suddenly deceased first born. And now there's absolutely no mistake that this is indeed Anla Courtis of Reynols fame who for some reason ended up on the bill. And ladies and gentlemen, I'm slowly realising that after a somewhat restrained beginning, this show is growing into a historical blast of mindblowing performance.
The rest of the group, known for this portion of the tour as French Doctors, is composed of people of different horizons and bands who still interact like they've been playing together for years. The drummer (Edward Perraud: Shub Niggurath) is all over the place, inventive when needed and purely monstruous in the wildest moments.
Two bass guitars are used at times by Olivier Manchion and Nicolas Marmin of Permanent Fatal Error, bringing the necessary groove as they carry the whole crowd with them on ships of low frequencies, while on the other side of the drummer, Franq de Quengo and Sebastien Sorgo manipulate the sounds and weld an electronic ambience.
Right next to the them, Anla is being Anla, having to be reanimated after a particularly high spirited and ecstatic piece. And finally of course, there is Damo.
At the fore of the group, the little big man, like a grey furry ball of quiet energy, at times trading his deliciously defiant voice of a child unwilling to grow old and give up his innocence for - yes - cookie monster growls. He stands there feeding the powerful waves of the music back to the band and the audience. Watching him there, headbanging away, one immediately realizes what Damo Suzuki's Network is. The small man in the middle is the catalyst of the experiment, bringing together these different worlds into a free, rocking form.
I left the venue with the thought that if Damo Suzuki's network is something to be witnessed, no matter who is playing for the occasion, then tonight might even have been a little bit more.
The rest of the photos of the concert are available here or through the Documents section.
More Info and Links:
the French Doctors will be releasing an album in 2005, so keep a tab on them here
Damo Suzuki's Network
