Goat
Circomedia / Bristol
4 April
Surreality is the name of the game for Goat, a band that revel in the mysterious. Masked and enigmatic, the experimental rock outfit from Gothenburg in Sweden take on the magisterial venue of Circomedia as part of the Red Bull Music Academy tour, but for this gig the mystery is not confined to the band. Upon entering the reclaimed church in St Paul’s, punters are requested to ‘Surrender Yourself’ and are provided with blank tasselled masks and african-ish smocks.
So far so bizarre, then, the resulting crowd resembling the characters from Eyes Wide Shut in a reasonably horrifying way – it is an uneasy, if innovative, foundation for an event considering The Fix’s paranoia regarding masks. Even to reach the external toilets one has to walk over dusky graves. When Goat emerge from the alter to begin proceedings with, quite naturally, ‘Talk to God’, the scene is quite spectacular, and goes far beyond your normal gig fare. The jangling guitar that is so present on record becomes more of a Deliverance-style banjo-esque riff for this opener...
Read the rest of the review here: The Fix
Photo by @SteveStills @AthenaAnastasiou
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