Polyphonic Spree live at Camden Monrach in London
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Polyphonic Spree @ Camden Monarch, London, 11.07.02

POLYPHONIC SPREE

James Berry spins on the axis of a mammoth choral section in appreciation of the 24 piece, Polyphonic Spree: the Flaming Lipsx7.

31/07/2002

We have been at gigs here, much more than once, often in fact, where the audience has numbered significantly less than the body count up on stage tonight (nb. we are just talking numerically here) . And we don’t think we have ever seen quite so much audience vying for so very little space either – people spilling out of the door and down the stairs, still trying to push round the corner by the bar for a better view right up till the end. Talk about hottest ticket in town, the air conditioning’s practically holding an ice pack to its weary dripping forehead. “This is our first time we’ve played outside our home country, of Texas,” emotes Tim DeLaughter, leader and beaming sonic reverend of Dallas’ sons and daughters the 24-piece Polyphonic Spree, “and London has been amazing.” For us too Tim, for us too.

So just to break this down for you then. You get your guitar, bass and drum axis. You can have your spirited, wide-eyed frontman, almost biblical in composure, as well. Then what about keyboards, horns and maybe a flute too? Still not enough? Alright, well you can have a mammoth choral section in double figures and spanning generations heaped up in the corner like a swaying human pyramid with a vibrant pulse. And something to top it off? What about draping them all in flowing white robes and balancing the whole caboodle on the very fine line between whiter-than-white psychedelic purity and an unfathomably high-spirited cult that can only possibly have been baked up in the Deep South, away from prying eyes and dirty modernity. Whatever, you have never seen anything so very out of the ordinary.

And that alone should really be enough recommendation. But ignore the heartfelt clarity of the performance for a moment, and the swallow-you-whole enormity of all before your eyes. Because the songs themselves have inherited all the around them and are nothing short of inescapably colossal sonic tsunamis, weaved out of the most delicate and naïve of sounds. The single ‘Soldier Girl’ is like the whole of the Flaming Lips’ ‘Soft Bulletin’ condensed into 3 glorious minutes and set closer ‘King’ is a crescendo built out of the moments when a child first discovers the utter joy of music. It’s all a bit like Grandaddy overseeing creation. Big bang doesn’t even go near what they achieve live on a stage. Essentially then they are The Flaming Lips times 7 and a bit. And then some. Only so much more. When one bewildered heckler pipes up towards the end almost the whole of the back half of the room turn around to rightfully berate him. You are simply left flabbergasted. There is little point wasting any more words, this is something you can only experience for yourself. So do. Soon.

James Berry


James Berry for Crud Magazine© 2002


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January 2001

July - August 2001
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