Orzic Tentacles @ The Spring and Airbrake – 18/10/2010
October 23, 2010 No Comments
Ed Wynne - Orzic Tentacles (C) Edwin Docherty 2010
It’s a miserable, wet night in Belfast. Nonetheless a surprisingly large crowd has decided to face the elements and head for the Spring and Airbrake to see Somerset’s own psychedelic, prog rock, hippie guys Orzic Tentacles. Support is provided by local band, ‘The Cities We Captured’ – part of the growing local trend of long band names and instrumental, post rock/metal, TCWC play a neat opening set.
The Cities We Captured (C) Edwin Docherty 2010
Their songs are heavy, tidily arranged and executed ably by a really tight band. However, the songs lack any kind of emotional resonance, which seems an essential ingredient of the genre, and as their set ends they fail to reach any kind of crescendo. As they leave the stage there seems to be a general feeling in the crowd of, “Really? Was that the last song?” This is maybe somewhat inevitable, when playing a thirty minute opening set, but it’s a shame…
Silas - Orzic Tentacles (C) Edwin Docherty 2010
Headliners Orzic Tentacles have kitted out the small stage with as many lights and projectors as will fit in the Spring and Airbrake and as they come on stage, veiled by a seemingly endless supply of dry ice, they make good use of every one of them. The first minute of cool, atmospheric synth noise gets the crowd pretty excited, and as they break into their first tune the crowd is mad into it. With a wealth of material to draw from (having released 28 albums in total since their debut album, “Pungent Effulgent” in 1989), the band perform a varied selection of old tracks and new. Well known for their playful forays into different musical genres, they move seamlessly between progressive, electronic, reggae/dub and psychedelic sounds. With the trippy projections flashing behind the band, their stage show looks impressive and accompanies the music well.
Brandi - Orzic Tentacles (C) Edwin Docherty 2010
The band (during one section of what can only be described as the worst stage banter of all time) admit to being pleasantly surprised at the turnout tonight, claiming that the night before they had played to less than thirty people. Perhaps this can account for why they felt it was appropriate to play a set clocking in at just over two hours.
Some of the Orzic atmosphere (C) Edwin Docherty 2010
This was to the delight of some of the more passionate fans towards the front, but to the more casual onlookers near the back what started out as an enjoyable set turned into more of an endurance test as it became increasingly more difficult to differentiate one song from another while they drew from their huge back catalogue. It seems a little harsh to call this pure self indulgence, as they were spurred on by a select few, but as they finished their last song, to a room now half empty, there was a sigh of relief amongst many still there… Of course, this didn’t stop the Orzics performing a three song encore. All in all, what started as a swell show was somewhat tarnished by the band members refusal to get off stage.
By Ben Whiteside