Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown

I went to the third night of Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown festival last night, bit of a surreal sight witnessing Mr Cocker introducing two pretty extreme metal acts - but then again I applaud his openminded attitude.

The first band to play was Chrome Hoof - Christ, where do you start with them... Some pictures maybe?

This picture should give you a fair indication of the band; think of a really tight, highly talented funk band who have been listening, and appreciating, a fair amount of death metal. Or maybe imagine Slipknot if they finally got in touch with their female side and let a bit of glitter into their lives:

This is there 12ft metal goat effigy, it was a bit more impressive than this picture implies:

And here is one of their dancer's, I'm amazed she got through the set without collapsing - the thought that must have been running through every hot-blooded male mind (and maybe one or two broadminded female ones) in the audience was: "I bet she goes like the clappers"

Other highlights: the bit where the two dancers murdered the string section, the bit where the guitarists got out the BC Richs and the bass player donned a Spartan helmet to run through some quality metal, and maybe the bit where the strange bloke in the comedy Scottish wig who came on to sweep the stage mid-song.

A band to watch I think, they will appeal to people who like bands like The Go! Team, or maybe !!! but who yearn for a touch of metal in their lives.

Anyway, onwards to Sunn O)))

This was their stage set-up:

The usual wall of amplifiers, a Moog and then a few instruments which I haven't seen them use. They had someone on Rhodes piano, which added a really odd jazzy feel to some of the music; they also had someone who spent the first half of the set tapping on a guitar with a violin bow, and the second half of the set they had him playing on what looked like a traditional pair of DJ decks, I think he may have been playing them at 0.5 RPM though.

The main focal point though was their vocalist Attila Csihar:

Admittedly if you are going to stand on a smoke filled stage directly above green spooky lights whilst wearing robes and what may or may not have been a fake blond wig, you are going to end up being the centre of attention.

For the second half of the set he came back on wearing a sack, as you do:

I'll be brutally honest, tonight Sunn O))) probably dragged there drone metal thing on a bit too long, when a show ends with the entire band lying down on the stage you get the impression that maybe everyone is getting a bit tired and should go home and get some sleep.

Not to say it was bad, the fact that it was a seated venue gave you that extra interaction with the music as you felt the bass in a very real and physical way! And I quite liked some of Attila's invocating, its just that the set could have done with being about half an hour shorter.

So that's my opinion of the night, I've got a few more pictures here if you want.