Sunn O))) - Corsica Studios 22/02/09

ONLY DEATH IS REEEEEEEAAAAAAAAALLL

As the robed protagonists take to the stage the call of a lone youngster on drugs breaks the grim theatrical atmosphere Sunn O))) just spent twenty minutes building up. And the show is all the better for it. This one off gig, celebrating a decade of extended doom, sees the band stripped down to its two founding members Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, within the notably diminutive confines of the Corsica Studios. An intimate bare bones set up that manages to yield probably the most affecting Sunn O))) set since the first time I saw them.

Going to see them play multiple times is like going to the theatre to see the same play over and over, but with a changing cast in different theatres, so to be wowed anew by them is quite a feat. Everyone there was into it, everyone caught up in it, swaying entranced, and when O'Malley turned around during the final section of amp dial fiddling to see his and Anderson's guitars both hanging from the ceiling surrounded by fog and undeniably sublime frequencies, and to see a crowd of horns raised in approval, he grinned. Which I'm pretty sure is a first.