Issue 99 / May 2019

REVIEWS
GZA
+ Nu Tribe
Bam!Bam!Bam! @ Invisible Wind Factory –
13/04
The co-founder of the world’s most legendary hip hop crew,
GZA aka The Genius, humbly graces the stage of Invisible Wind
Factory on his worldwide Liquid Swords album tour.
It’s a gusty Saturday night. Hundreds of people are heading
along Liverpool’s northern waterfront which stands in the
epicentre of a development zone. A small army march towards
the venue over what looks like a Fallout Wasteland map. Outside
the venue, the bouncers rub together their gloved hands and
we head inside. I get the vibe that the only fight going down
tonight is between them and the whipping winds that revel in the
Mersey’s unseasonable cold.
Bursting through the double doors the venue is already
buzzing. Pink flashing and blue dangling fairy lights illuminate
the tightly packed crowds. Occasionally a strobe light flashes
GZA (Fin Reed / @finlayreed)
over a familiar face, someone yells to a friend and a drink gets
spilled. Liverpool’s boom bap collective NU TRIBE proceed to the
stage decked out in colourful gear, dreads and hats. Heads turn
and begin to bop to the eclectic sounds that flood through the
crowd and spark an electric current of pure groove.
Nu Tribe depart and we begin to anticipate GZA’s arrival.
During the wait, DJ Symphony prescribes the crowd with a
dose of well-deserved hip hop classics. Bangers from likes of
Gangstarr, Big L, Nas are served up like a treat.
The crowd has swelled to capacity and we’re packed tightly
together, arse to arse and cap to cap. without any real warning,
GZA himself steps into the spotlight, locking eyes with his
hardcore Scouse fans. It’s almost like he’s sat down with us as he
engages the crowd in deep conversation. Eyes are truly transfixed
as we drink down his introduction.
A harsh sample runs in with a violent force, kicking the
audience into a hand-bopping, side-swaying dance. The silvertongued
MC delivers complex lyrical compositions; they instantly
pounce on top of RZA’s raw beats, bringing the streets of Staten
Island to Liverpool in a simple conjuring of the imagination.
The punchy beats are overpowered with glaring feedback
from the basslines but it only adds to raw energy. The room has
heated up quickly and as it hits GZA he strips his jacket off mid
set to reveal a black tracksuit jacket with stripes. Liquid Swords’
title track emerges, crafted to perfection and sung through the
vocal chords of a gritty street king. He engages us individually
with call; the lyrics responsive and thought-provoking. The
bassline tunes itself into my heartbeat and I begin spinning
around in time with the giant disco ball installation above my
head.
Towards the end of the set we’re treated to a few Wu-Tang
classics, C.R.E.A.M. and Mystery Of The Chessboxing. It’s a
cheeky throwback for die-hard fans, leaving us on a high note.
As we all leave together, there’s a sense of pride that once again
we’ve housed a legend in Liverpool.
GZA (Fin Reed / @finlayreed)
Iona Fazer / @ionafazer97
Pinegrove
+ Tom The Lion
Arts Club – 05/04
We’re not here to talk about politics, we’re here to talk about
PINEGROVE. The New Jersey indie rock outfit have returned after
a year-long hiatus with their 2018 album Skylight. Pinegrove’s
unique blend of Americana instrumentation and angst-ridden
confessional songwriting is unrivalled, making them hard to
categorise. Calling the band ‘emo-country’ would leave a bad
taste in anyone’s mouth, so perhaps it’s best they’re described as
a crossroads between American Football and Wilco.
Rough Trade-championed duo TOM THE LION open the
show tonight. They’re a bit more electronic than Pinegrove, yet
still fitting the bill with their atmospheric and melancholic songs.
They swirl in a sea of synths that evoke the deep sadness of Jeff
Buckley with the London swagger of James Blake. Nearing the
end of the set, the frontman announces, “Our drummer is from
Liverpool,” to large cheers from the crowd of Scouse hipsters who
are starting to pile in.
It is not often you hear a band playing in the Arts Club that
features a lap-steel guitar. Pinegrove’s latest release is far more
mellow than their previous two releases, Everything So Far and
Cardinal. The album is their most unified and strongest release
to date, full of bittersweet triumphant ballads. The most beautiful
moments of the night come from the slow-burner Intrepid, and
the tender track title track of their most recent release, Skylight.
Frontman Evan Hall sings, “Let you let go/whatever you’re feeling
is natural”. Older tunes Angelina and Size Of The Moon get the
crowd going and singing along, with the latter showing off Hall’s
writing skills, including a mock conversation with himself in which
he reminisces, “Fine, yeah, I know, I remember that too/In your
living room, right?/When we began to fight but then we both felt
confused/Then we were laughing and crying in awe of the size of
the moon.”
Hall strikes me as an intellectual, and a bit of a nerd, rattling
off facts about the lightbulb, his hometown of Montclair, New
Jersey, and George Harrison in between songs. “Flock Of Seagulls
– your greatest export,” he says wryly before a quick jab at the
Aintree races. “Poor horses, honestly, seems pretty fucked up
to me,” he says. His songs are equally as pointed and lyrically
dense as his character would lead you to believe. Bob Dylan
and Neil Young are clear influences on his thinking and lyricism.
Despite this, the crowd doesn’t have a problem singing along to
Old Friends, a song which culminates in the thought dawning on
Hall: “I should call my parents when I think of them/Should tell my
friends when I love them”. Throughout Skylight, Hall’s songs feel
like pure catharsis as he irons out his growing pains. On stage
we witness him passionately grapple with themes of isolation,
acceptance, and the realisation that life really isn’t all that bad at all.
Joel Durksen
Pinegrove (Jessica Grace Neal / jessicagracecreative.com)
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