A Silver Mt. Zion Manchester Acadamey3 21 03 10
Title: A Silver Mt. Zion - Manchester Acadamey3 21 03 10
Label: Constellation
Cataloge No: N/A
Type: Live
Reviewer: Rich
Date: 23, March, 2010
And so the Silver Mt Zion rolls once again into town, this time with a sized down membership, a batch of new songs from their latest album, Kollaps Tradixionales, and a sold out Academy 3. Efrim Menuck is in great form tonight, long gone are the nervous talkings of earlier days (godspeed/early mt zion), now he is in full form, ranting away about how we shouldn't love music, and something to do with Bono. I don't remeber the rest but it was funny to say the least. Opening with the stoming punk blues of I Built Myself A Metal Bird/I Fed My Metal Bird The Wings Of Other Metal Birds and things were off to a decidedly loud and almost energetic performance. Which is where things somehow got lost for me, its great music certainly, but oh my, where has the emotion gone? This is a band that has changed dramatically over the course of 6 albums and have never really followed a certain path, be that a good or a bad thing. It's certainly less heartwrenching these days.
Others from their five or six song set, mainly drawn from their last few albums, didn't quite live up the the poweful opener, possibly due to the change in lineup, Something got lost along the way with Microphones In The Trees, radically changed and at an exceedingly loud volume it's certainly different to the earlier live performances and the minimal lo-fi ep version. God Bless Our Dead Marines was a lot better, showing off the skills of their latest drummer in tow to a respectful and excitable audience.
But for me that was about it. I didn't enjoy this one as much as I have enjoyed them in the past and unfortunatly I really don't know why, they are still a power to behold within the confines of their music, and they still appear to be enjoying and putting a hell of a lot of effort into what they do. I guess somewhere along the way though I got left behind on this one.
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