How serendipitous it was that on the Hope and Ruin stairs, I noticed a poster of Jaki Liebezeit, legendary drummer for krautrock royalty, Can, that I would then be treated to a set of sexy Can-inspired marvelousness from American outfit, Eternal Tapestry. (Incidentally, Liebezeit is playing with Hans Joachim Irmler (of Faust) on the 17^th June at the same venue).

 

You can always tell American touring bands from the equipment they have – it tends to be lovely vintage stuff that would cost the earth in the UK (not that I’m jealous at all). In this instance, the equipment wedded perfectly with the music – Eternal Tapestry treated us to a mix of retro krautrock, rip snorting roll’n’roll, psychedelic blues and some excellent Jethro Tull flute atmospherics. The fact that the moustached, floral cap wearing frontman chose to burn incense moments before the show didn’t even seem strange as ET eased into a smoky, swirling, bluesy opener. The languid noodling could have gone on forever as far as I was concerned.

 

Eternal Tapestry undeniably have a krautrock sensibility – they pointed towards favourable comparisons with Can’s textures, discipline or mastery of dynamics; the trippiness of Kollectiv; the guitar heroics of Popol Vuh and the essential momentum of Neu! at various points in the set. Guess who the singer reminded me of when he occasionally got up to the mic? Damo Suzuki, of course.

 

Each song had its own particular flavour, but underpinning it all was great musicianship and control. The beauty of gigs like these where bands are exploring boundaries and improvising are moments where everything suddenly clicks together as a whole; the sense of recognition in the room is palpable and you know you are witnessing a shared moment of ephemeral beauty. It’s the reason I go to gigs – last night was full of them.

 Adam Atkins