Jesu / Sun Kil Moon

Mark Kozelek’s recent shift to rambling, stream-of-consciousness singing over the last few years continued with the release of a collaborative album with Jesu earlier this year. Jesu is the founding member of Godflesh, Justin Broadrick, who layers distorted guitar in a sludgey, dirgey sort of way that makes for a fine counterpoint to Kozelek’s singing on record. The languid pace of the songs made for a somewhat staid concert at times however, although once the distortion kicked in at about 40 minutes in the crowd and the momentum got into more of an excitable rhythm. Kozelek played several new songs that the crowd weren’t familiar with (asking us to “witness my lack of tending to my physical fitness” an example of the relaxed rhyming style) that were fantastic, particularly a number about Lou Reed which mixed Bill Hicksian bile vitriol with a Mitch Hedbergian delivery. A Muhammad Ali-quoting song ‘Me, We’ was a fiery highlight, and the whole gig was a fun exercise in songwriting and audience interaction: fun for the fans but unlikely to win over the indifferent.

Concorde 2, 19 September 2016
Rating:
Joe Fuller