a silver mt zion 18-02-2012
first baptist church, ottawa
over the years, i've seen the members of a (thee? whatever) silver mt. zion perform through their various projects in some rather unusual places. there was a converted strip club in ottawa in 1999, a place that is now a stable night club in ottawa but was not at the time. there was a giant heritage building cathedral in quebec city in 2003. there was a small bar in the town of wakefield, population ~8, in 2004. there was a movie theatre in ottawa in 2010.
this evening, i saw them in a consecrated church in downtown ottawa. the significance of the building meant little to me, but the acoustics were outstanding.
regarding the new material, it should be pointed out that a (thee? whatever) silver mt. zion have a full time drummer again. the importance of this can't be fully stressed. it's hard to write crazy, sweeping epic rock when your drummer can't really pull it off, and the reality is that they've had periodic difficulties finding somebody stable to occupy the kit and have audibly had to adjust to compensate.
the release they're touring is a limited run vinyl recording that they claim they're only selling at their shows. anti retro-futurist troglodytes like myself without a turntable will have to cross their fingers and wait for it to come out on a format they can operate.
this band has a habit of making every second record rock with the intensity that is the draw to the act. i'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but they seem to retreat inwards between explosions of grandiosity. perhaps, they must do this to recharge? does it simply take time to write? or, perhaps it's the other way around - they need space to jam between moments of reflection. whatever it is, the last disc was a more reflective disc so if they're to stay true to form the next one should turn the volume back up. the set list even seemed to recognize this, with three tracks from their 2008 disc, three new tracks and only one track from their 2010 disc.
the turn in intensity is in a different direction and not really fully realized. of the three new tracks, the attached free jazz workout and a track that doesn't appear on the ep were the ones that really stood out. while they seem to crank the intensity back up, the turn is only about halfway.
this is a band that knows how to play live, and i must admit that i've seen them so many times that it's almost become a little routine. there's no doubt that they roared through the material from 13 blues with their trademark second-to-none intensity, but i'm not overly excited about the new material. efrim mentioned at the show that the seven inch release schedule may become standard for them for the near future, but we may have to wait for another conceptual full length before they snap back into pattern.
there is a high quality full flac rip of the entire show in the space above. somebody also uploaded some video footage. so, i've pasted this together into a single hybrid file.