Live Review - Earth & Sunn O))) - Glasgow ABC

Earth & Sunn O))) at Glasgow ABC, February 12th.

Music has always been haunted by urban legends. They would have you believe that Paul McCartney is dead, Tupac is still alive, and that Britney Spears can sing.

As far as they go, there's none more bizarre than the rumour that Sunn0))) - pronounced simply "Sunn", if you were wondering - play with such low frequencies as to cause audience members to involuntarily empty their bowels. The "brown note" - very rock n roll. True or not, it's an interesting thought to toy with as you enter Glasgow's ABC venue tonight, awaiting drone metal legends Earth and their pals in Sunn0))) to grace the stage.

When Earth appear, they're initially mistaken for roadies by some.

In the world of music in which they're "popular" - internet buzz, mix tapes, word of mouth and Sub-Pop legend - recognition isn't common. Dylan Carlson appears, however, to rapturous applause. In an ever-changing line-up, Carlson has always been a part of Earth. Carlson is Earth. The original and best drone-metal band on the planet, it's been his pet project with which to make weird, fucked-up music for disillusioned kids since the early 90s.

Earth open with 'Lens Of Unrectified Night', but there's no way of truly discerning where one song ends and where another begins. Sloooow, structured melodies, progressing in an unseen fashion; like the earth round the sun, there are only brief clues it's happening. The longer they play, the more absorbed you become. The riffs are absorbing, the drums imbed into your subconscious, and the trombone adds a degree of bizarreness to the bizarre.

Final song - if you can call a lyricless collection of sounds that - 'Raiford (The Felon Wind)' elicits cheers and raised beers, and with a short "Thank you", they're gone.

And then it's Sunn0)))'s turn.

Filling the stage with smoke so thick that it (accidentally) sets the fire alarms off is a pretty cool shtick. An ethereal dirge of violins fades in. Through the haze, it's hard to know what's going on. Confusion all round. Suddenly, the "band" - guitarist, bassist, and a guy who fucks about with moogs - cut through the fog, draped in cloaks, the stage looking every bit like a KKK panto.

A fella next to me has a bash at describing the Sunn0))) live show, based on previous experience, with a rugby analogy: "You've got the ball, you're running down the field looking for a pass," he says, "when suddenly you realise that you're flanked by two guys from the other team, both trying to take the ball from you. At that point, you're no longer in control. You just want to get the ball to someone else in your team and everything's uncertain."

He was drunk, in all fairness, but it's an interesting insight into the sort of debate that both Sunn0))) and Earth spark. Theories are offered up and discussion runs riot pre- and post-set, the performance dividing opinion like a heavy metal Marmite.

The music itself, when it finally starts, is chaotic. Distorted low-end frequency feedback in a thunderstorm doesn't cover half of it. Pure doom and gloom. The riffs are infrequent and so heavy that you can feel your organs trying to escape. Heavyweight "fuck you" guitar noise pummels us all. We're punching well above our weight, people start to sit down and zone out. Ears become eyes. No thought, just drone.

It was bound to happen. Bands say "You're the best crowd we've ever played to, blah blah blah" with a straight face; weirdos like Sunn0))) pick up a guitar and say "Let's see how fucked up we can get." And the antithesis of all that bullshit feels great, refreshing like a Sahara desert fountain. Pop music is a picnic, and this drone metal chaos takes us into the woods and has its wicked way with us.

The clouds grow thicker and the storm rumbles on, the bewildered wondering why they're spending their Sunday night like this, the others sharing a wry smile at the havoc being wreaked upon them. The end is nigh. Now, the audience is a collective receptacle for static sound and nothing more. Caught in a web that restricts all movement, a trance-like state. Intestines are massaged by bass. Heart rates are all over the shop. Some start to leave. Headaches, feelings of anxiety, exhaustion and eardrum agony. It isn't so much music as it is one huge, disorientating experience of SOUND, lots of it. Music lifts you up and takes you to the heights of the rollercoaster; this crazy, noisy shit plummets you to the bottom, you feel the screaming wind on your face and your organs fall into your stomach.

Earth and Sunn0))) have left an impressive, irremovable scar on Glasgow. It's up to us whether the pain was worth it. And, thankfully, the odd fart or two aside, no-one emptied their bowels.

Graeme Johnston

Links:

Sunn o)))

http://www.southernlord.com/sunn/

http://www.ideologic.org/

http://www.myspace.com/ideologic

Earth

http://www.thronesanddominions.com/

http://www.myspace.com/earthofficial