The Metal Machine Trio is Lou Reed performing live
the infamous Metal Machine Music Album.
This gig is from the Sydney Opera House - I found this
on the wonderful The Occasional Archivist - thank you
gentlemen - give them a visit.
Here is a run down of the highlights:
17 mins - A chord change .... E to E flat!
37 mins - Lou Reed thinks about smiling but
remembers that the last time he smiled, his
face froze for 3 years and instead crushes the
skull of a new born kitten with his boot.
59 mins - Someone shouts out for "Heroin".
His roadies take the person backstage, castrate
and lobotomise him, tattoo "sex slave" on his
head and ship him out to one of the secret hidden
death camps located in the American mid-west.
73 mins - Is that the sound of some drumming?
No ...... just the sound of a microwave door shutting
as Reed kills some puppies.
Actually, not all the above facts are true. I had
imagined that this would be like the album and
after 90 minutes would be numb to all emotions
and just be in a corner crying softly.
This is not the case!
It starts of with drones, some soft gong bangs and
very controlled feedback that produces warm sound
waves that wash over you. Very dark ambient - in
fact very much like early Tangerine Dream. After
about half an hour a saxaphone starts to play - very
mournful - very Jan Garbeck - it never overpowers
but adds tonal qualities not unlike brass instruments
used by Can or Soft Machine.
More listenable than I thought it would be - in fact I
was hoping for more of the noise and chaos of the album
but I suppose impossible to sustain for an hour and a half
without peoples heads exploding.
Yes! As you can imagine, I loved the album, I'm looking forward to hearing this
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