Inhaling the instruments: Sonic Pleasure

Very rarely do I go to a gig but I was persuaded to go to this one by the intriguing prospect of seeing and hearing Sonic Pleasure play the bricks. And this is my very first attempt to write about music. The full line up was: Sonic Pleasure and Matt Wand followed by Levy Metal then Jack Wright, Mark Browne and Ross Lambert.

Jack Wright had come all the way from the US of A (Philadelphia area) and according to his blurb “does not hesitate to disappoint audiences looking for the art crowd comfort zone” but don’t worry Jack I wasn’t aware that was a thing let alone looking for it. The funny thing was that he looked uncannily like a local Levenshulme character who is guaranteed to gate crash any political event (such as my picket line of 2 at Longsight library circa 2011) and try to flog the Socialist Worker. There were no copies to be seen so it can’t have been him.

Sonic Pleasure aka Angelique looked ravishing in a black velvet off the shoulder top, a gauzy tulip skirt, white evening gloves and trainers. She is tall, willowy and has beautiful long wavy hair so the outfit looked amazing. She sat on the floor with a pile of a few bricks, bits of metal, slate, roof tiles, a hammer all atop some cream bath mats. Matt sat on a chair with some kind of electronic bank in front of him. He was wearing a jumper.

Sonic proceeded to bash the bricks together, rattle the metal and make passionate noises (with the bricks and metal, not her voice) while Matt responded by tweaking the dials and pushing bits of his equipment up and down with a mere touch of a finger tip. I’m sure they were responding to each other but I cannot tell you quite how even though I have asked a musician. The spectacle sparked off a lot of memories and thoughts for me.

I thought about Emily Bronte and Kate Bush as Sonic seemed to be channeling an essential female power which contrasted with Matt’s reserved and technological approach. Were they deliberately playing with stereotypes? What would it be like if Matt removed a few clothes and got down on the floor? It occurred  to me that Sonic’s behaviour would have probably led straight to the asylum not so long ago. I was reminded of “The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox” by Maggie O’Farrell which tells the story of a woman who is sent to an asylum and never leaves. O’Farrell lists reasons that women were imprisoned in one particular institution and some of them are chillingly trivial (wearing her mother’s shoes). I thought about what a silly book “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus” was.

Meanwhile the bricks were getting broken and the dust was flying, the instruments were entering our lungs and settling on our skin. I guess we inhale tiny particles of instruments at “normal” gigs but this felt more obvious, I’d never been aware of that process before.

There was a joke passed between Sonic and Matt and a finale. Then a joke for us:

Sonic “good job I run marathons as a hobby”Matt “good job I eat Snickers”.

It only works on people of a certain age but the audience was definitely on the more mature side.  It was all wonderful even though no would would dance with me to Levy Metal’s Breton gavotte. The last act featured a fabulous gong which was gently stroked rather than banged. Made me want to listen to T.Rex. I can’t post you a link because I haven’t paid the necessary money but you can no doubt search it and enjoy it for yourself.

These boots were made for approaching and that’s just what they’ll do: getting to the crag

Footwear has always been a contentious issue in my life. My mother was a great believer in sensible shoes and that meant that they had to be measured, length-ways and width-ways. The only shops that did that were Clarks and Startrite which unfortunately for me represented a clumpy frumpy fashion no go area. New shoes were an exciting promise every autumn until the reality of the range of options was revealed and yet again I had to choose the least upsetting style (at great expense to my mother who seemed to be convinced that a cheaper pair would cripple me for life) Arguments over shoes have been a life long feature, nearly 52 years of choosing supposedly inappropriate footwear. Here’s the latest example:

I went climbing in Kalymnos a couple of weeks ago, I packed my climbing shoes, some flip flops and a pair of sandals as it was definitely going to be hot. My plan was to climb rocks in the climbing shoes, flip flop around my room and wear the sandals for everything else. They were ideal for evenings as they had a gold strap and gold goes with everything and looks glamorous, they were also perfect for long walks across rocky uneven terrain as they had comfortable cork soles with grippy rubber on the bottom. All round super duper and attractive to boot.

The first climbing club member to see them looked dubious and asked if I was intending to walk to the crag “in them”, I wondered what exciting obstacles awaited us. My lovely new climbing partner managed to contain himself to the last day and then told me as a parting shot to wear proper shoes if I ever came back. That was just before a random Canadian man expressed dismay that I was actually walking around in these unsuitable things. The thing is that they were absolutely fine and I didn’t suffer. I also saved money and luggage space on what climbers call “approach shoes”. I have looked at a definition which I believe to be taken from a catalogue of a manufacturer and they are apparently perfect for that in betweeny terrain. Not exactly rock but a bit challenging and uneven. They give you support in strategic parts of your feet. It’s all very technical. And ugly.

Funnily enough the fantastic sandals are made by Clarks and I like their desert boots a lot too. It’s all retro cool nowadays. Don’t know about Startrite though.