black midi @ Turner Hall [Milwaukee] - 10/12/21
black midi’s Geordie Creep giving the all-systems-go at Turner Hall in Milwaukee, WI (Photo ©2021 Kevin Hill)
The kids are all right (but they also may all be on drugs).
black midi’s chaotic, revelatory performance at Turner Hall in Milwaukee ripped the band-aid off our collective live music drought and left a path of destruction (and joy) in its wake.
On their 2019 debut album Schlagenheim, the band established themselves as a ferocious vanguard of whatever post “post rock” may become. 2021’s Cavalcade upped that ante by not dialing back the chaos, but slyly positioning it just under the surface. Even when singer/guitarist Geordie Creep (supported by band members Cameron Picton on Bass, Morgan Simpson on drums, and touring members Seth Evans on keyboards, and Kaidi Akinnibi on saxophone) is crooning on a track like “Marlene Dietrich” you get the sense that the man with the chainsaw is waiting just behind the door for you. While never explicitly “horrorshow,” it manages to approximate that vibe in its most strictly Burgessian definition.
And knowing all of that, you cannot really be prepared for what this band does live.
When we talk about “art rock” it is not often in terms of the performance. We do not think of it as theater. But with black midi the line between performance and PERFORMANCE is so blurred, it is hard to tell which part of their craft they are most fluent in. Donning a pair of dark shades and a trench coat, the way Creep stalked not just the audience, but his own band members played like some hyper-real, hyper-internalized version of Bono’s “The Fly” character. For as sleight as Creep’s physical presence is, there was never a point where you were not wondering if you were risking violence just being in his presence. The audience, who skewed extremely young, ate up every delectable moment of it.
black midi IS chaotic, and they ARE loud and violent. But impossibly there is a sweetness and gentleness to their performance that threatens to be addictive. In a set that featured as many unreleased tracks (“27 Q”, “Lumps”) as it did standouts from their two LP’s, there was never a moment where the room did not move. It was not just a mosh pit, it was a mosh crowd. And totally unlike anything I have ever experienced in live music before.
And speaking of the audience: It is not a thing that belongs in a recap like this, but I remain amazed by how I simply did not anticipate how fanatic black midi’s fanbase is. The almost sold-out room was full of impossibly young glassy eyed boys and girls with a pupil dilation factor of 1M. All there to receive communion from their “gods.” Some were clearly just tripping their faces off, but for others there seemed to be some deeper engagement going on.
But this recap starting to sound like the inchoate ramblings of an old, so the point is simply this:
Go see black midi. Now. They are the future. And they will change your life.
Experimental instrumentalist L’Rain opened with a remarkable set of her own. Her latest album Fatigue is available now
Photos by Kevin Hill
SETLIST
Near DT, MI
Speedway
Marlene Dietrich
Welcome to Hell
Dethroned
Sugar/Tzu
Defence
Lumps
Still
Eat Men, Eat
Chondromalacia Patella
953
John L
27 Q
Slow
Covid Safety Rating
Venue Check for Proof of Vaccination? Yup
Masks required? Not required but suggested
Was the audience wearing masks? Olds: Yup Youth: Nope
But at least the staff was wearing masks, right? Totes!
