CONCERT RECAP: Godspeed You! Black Emperor @ Tipitina’s Uptown – 10/7/12

So it has been a few days since Godspeed You! Black Emperor (GY!BE) graced the stage at Tipitina’s Uptown, and I’m still finding it hard to wrap my head around what I experienced. If ever there was an out of body experience at a show – without drugs, mind you – this would be the one show to get you there. The first cool evening of spring greeted the Crescent City with open arms, its soundtrack supplied by New Orleans locals G String Orchestra and Canadian post-rock masters GY!BE, each band supplying transcending inspiration all throughout the night.

G String Orchestra reminds me of those corner bands on Frenchman Street and all throughout the bywater. They take their musical influences from a number of places and merge them into a simple and pleasant sound. The result being a blend of Gypsy/Klezmer/eastern European/ American folk congealed into a chamber popesque sensibility. The quartet was comprised of a violin, accordion, double bass and guitar, and each instrument lent itself to the others without one outshining any other. The band served as a perfect prologue to the main course.

Post-rock as a genre demands a different sensibility and understanding from its audiences and listeners. Where as a standard pop rock song will get you from point A to B in mere minutes, a post-rock track can, and if done properly, will take you on a musical journey spanning quite a considerable larger time span, points A – Z and back again. A typical show usually consists of few tracks at most. GY!BE’s set clocked in a whopping five tracks and lasted about two and a half hours, one track coming in around forty minutes.

GY!BE took the extraordinary step this tour to let the public have their latest offering on vinyl well before its official release date. The four track opus titled Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! is the band’s latest offering in over ten years. The set was comprised of material off it as well as a brand new track, “Behemoth”, which, as stated above, clocks in at over forty minutes. As the band started to set up the buzz of excitement was in the air. I can say without a doubt I have never seen that many floor pedals for one band, ever. Even the violinist had half a dozen or so of them. The set never felt long. We thrived on every note played and enjoyed every minute of the ride. The music penetrated every soul in the room concluding in a cathartic wall of noise, of which words will never be able to adequately describe. I had goose bumps for a day after the show and was in a complex haze of uncharted emotions by the end of it all. This is why I love this genre so. No words were ever spoken on stage, but throughout the night the word “Hope” was projected behind the band via 16mm film. The images that were displayed complemented every moment being acted out on stage.