Godspeed You! Black Emperor like to enhance their sound with a sense of theatrics and this was conveyed in their show on Monday night. Their music relies heavily on drone sounds and is clearly written with some orchestral influence. Their use of two drummers/percussionists creates unusual sounds that are almost unrecognisable and it’s sometimes hard to identify the instrument they came from. Needless to say, the concert at Brighton Dome was something unique, exciting and captivating.

Godspeed give the audience a feel for the room they’re in, creating an awareness of the Dome’s space and filling the room up with music. That isn’t a pretentious way of saying the show was loud either. More that their music has depth and layer upon layer of textures and melodies – you can hear how each instrument hits the room. Their sounds onstage are unique to them. There are moments when the two percussionists interlock and play in and out of sync to create huge dynamic textures. Tiny details from songs are amplified and take on a whole new purpose in this environment. The footage along with the vocal sample from Blaise Bailey Finnegan on ‘BBF3’ makes the song feel darker and more potent. The details are essential and it’s what makes the live experience so much richer than the recorded version.

Looking down on the band there isn’t any sense of performance from them. To physically play what they do and jump around performing would not only be impractical but also inappropriate. What you see on stage is, I imagine, how they sit and act in a rehearsal space. They all face each other and barely take their heads away from what they are playing. It feels like a window into musicianship, not performance. There is a clear distinction between this being a show and not a gig. The show aspect comes from an accompanying film that plays behind them. The footage gives nods to album covers but mainly has some soft comments on modern culture. Whilst they open with ‘Mladic’, projected onto the film is the word “hope” on a chicken scratched over the tape. Neither element draws full focus and you find yourself switching between focusing on the band and the film.

Each song or movement has a sense of epic around it that builds and carries itself for an average of 15 minutes. The setting of The Dome carries Godspeed’s music well: it makes the musicians on stage seem tiny. During ‘Undoing a Luciferian Towers’ a brass player comes onstage and is the only member standing at the forefront. This makes him seem isolated onstage and emphasises how small a figure he is among the immensity of the music and size of the room.

When each number closes there’s silence and applause, you can hear the film spools rolling between each song. Each tune carries its own weight and needs a moment afterwards – most of the audience use these intervals as brief toilet breaks. Godspeed’s live show is unlike any other show I’ve seen before. To call it a gig seems unfair, to go into any deeper waters seems to be getting carried away. It was a concert that was treated and responded to in the way people do at the theatre. Their combination of visual art with the music is essential to the live show and really helps to amplify the feelings and thoughts they are trying to communicate. For a completely instrumental group to be able to indirectly command your thinking and feeling throughout their show is an experience unlike any other.

Chris Middleton