When the headliners of a gig are billed as spreading love and dance via the gift of Cosmic Dross, you have a feeling that you are likely in for some tongue in cheek fun. With the amazing talent of Paddy Steer also on the billing, the evening was all set to twist and distort reality in all the right ways.
A subtle start to the evening came in the form of Dan Disgrace, with flowing mellow vibes that felt Instantly nostalgic. Mush Cloud in particular had me flashing back to sunny days and the first time I heard Happy Mondays in good company. With a nod to the space spawned love intentions of the evening, they rounded out their set with a melodic rendition of Satellite of Love,, which worked a treat.
After a brief pause, likely to allow valves to warm up and capacitors to reach full charge, a bank of control board lights and space helmet eyes blinked themselves alive and Paddy Steer let loose his unique sound generation vibe creation. Taking a wander through the sonic scapes that manage to escape Paddy’s mind is always a joy. A beautiful example of what can happen when let loose with a soldering iron and a love for musical experimentation.
A little blue smoke escaping a dying component did not dint or deter in any way, as the building crowd were made to know that the evening was going to involve dancing.
Clearly hiding under a rock had led me to completely overlook Henge until now, which put me firmly in the minority, as the room filled with eclectic, hat wearing acolytes. I was particularly taken with one hat doing the rounds toted by someone from the Mycelium Collective. The influence of mushrooms continued to be ever present in the space.
They mildly had me at plasma ball head garb and room owning gaze, and if this set had just been costume wearing, talented musicians building a perfect dance rave atmosphere, then I would have gone away happy to have been washed in the energy of it.
When a crowd is dancing in the face of ‘The Great Venusian Apocalypse’,’ (a catchy track about the self imposed annihilation of an entire planet, through excess energy and resource use, leading to rampant pollution and the death of all life), it is clear our visitors from another mind space universe are here to make a few points. I found myself struggling to think of a better way of making them.
Huge fun and giving a damn, feels like the perfect combination. I will leave this brief overview with the recommendation to go and see them live at the earliest opportunity and the lyrics from their closing track Demilitarise, that had the entire room singing along with the sometimes in sync cue cards. “We demand, that the weapons of war, are manufactured no more, demilitarise. We demand, that we have in its place, the means to unite, and colonise space”
Words + Pictures by Mark Holmes
