GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT

VENUE underground arts, PhiladelPhia

DATE 13/09/2019

Irish post-rockers God Is An Astronaut always deliver fascinating instrumental odes to the human condition. Their eighth LP, 2018’s Epitaph, is perhaps their greatest statement yet, and tonight’s gig is in celebration of that record. Delivering a 90-minute visual and aural spectacle, their set is an almost faultless triumph.

Unsurprisingly, they start with the title track. Its lone piano notes establish a suspenseful ether before guttural guitar chords, crushing cymbals and more touching dissonance cover every inch of the venue in heartache. It makes quite an impression, and more Epitaph selections — Mortal Coil, Séance Room and Medea — appear to further demonstrate just how devastating the band’s latest venture is.

Between the newer gems, there’s less of a career overview than you’d expect. They represent their 2002 debut, The End Of The Beginning, with its title track, and also play four compositions from 2005’s highly praised All Is Violent, All Is Bright before closing out with Centralia and the title track of 2015’s Helios/Erebus, and every one of them is a wonderful inclusion, but a wider spread across the whole catalogue would’ve been better.

The group rarely fail to match their sounds with apropos sights, and tonight smoke and fog permeate every note –

often obscuring the players – and their chaotically synchronised lights capture the mood of the music. At times, the hues even match the not-displayed original artwork, such as when flashing blues cover the crowd as Frozen Twilight radiates relatively mellow introspection.

Although the majority of the mixing is solid, there are a few instances of muddled tones and exaggerated feedback making it difficult to tolerate and discern certain pieces. Likewise, frontman Torsten Kinsella’s vocals are occasionally too quiet. Granted, he doesn’t sing so much as expressively murmur and offer commentary between some songs, but it’d still be nice to hear it all better.

Gripes aside, God Is An Astronaut infuse the night with all of the arresting aural and visual splendour that makes them so special. They excel at not only at enveloping the crowd in their own characteristic take on the genre, but also in exemplifying what makes postrock such a powerfully poetic genre.