My faith was restored at this, a truly joyous event filled with wild excursions into the unknown.

Matt Loveridge is formerly known as Team Brick but now known as Matt Loveridge, Gnar Hest, Klad Hest, Fairhorns, as a member of BEAK> and some others I’m bound to have missed. His real name is Matt Williams which renders Matt Loveridge a slyly absurd pseudonym. I should probably keep quiet though as throwing stones in glass houses isn’t a good look.

I arrived part way through this set where squelching shards of infinite delay/sustain had seemingly been built from voice and static. Loveridge was alternately singing through a clean microphone in a Roman chant and recharging the FX maelstrom with a second mic. Picking up a guitar and joined on stage by the Thought Forms drummer, loose patterns built in intensity until a kind of free-jazz no-rhythm percussive bedding had set in and the guitar, drenched in over-driven fuzz and sustain, played an entropic, droning chord progression somewhere in the region of sun o))) or Earth or even Burzum.

Further guttural vocalisations and a further slowing bring the whole thing down, drums lifting, single guitar sustain, parts of the FX torrent were now released further until an almost light swirl remained and Loveridge played xylophone. Repeating the melody of the guitar progression he let each metallic strike ring out and mix with the other sounds in sonorous decay. The whole thing ended in delicate beauty.

I don’t know if the musical structure was established at the beginning or not but I imagine that the true nature of the performance could only really be appreciated at the very end, after your perceptions had been altered through a purposeful leading down the rabbit hole.

Next up were Thought Forms. I was really looking forward to this. I’ve heard snippets which I absolutely loved. I also recently, participating in Bang the Bore’s Twenty/Twenty project, received a disc of Charlie Romjin’s blissful, solo drone works under the moniker ‘The Silver Stairs of Ketchikan’ which is real good and like totally psychedelic man.

There were definitely songs but, to be honest, I was so wrapped up in it all that I failed to take any notes so won’t be providing any specifics. What I can say is that they rose from zoned out scrapes, wobbles and caresses into blissed out echoes of Bardo Pond (an obvious comparison I’m afraid), Can and even a little My Bloody Valentine. Sometimes a guitar loop would shift in and out of focus, the quiet bits were thoughtful and purposeful and the loud bits were totally energising. More to the point, they bloody rocked!

Strangely I have the least to say about them but they were hands down my favourite act of the night. I wish it hadn’t been seated so we could have danced or at least rocked back and forth appreciatively. They’re playing Cardiff in August as Joy Collective and ourselves are co-promoting a show. Watch out for details as it’ll be rad.

Finally, Six Organs of Admittance. My first exposure to 6 Organs was a gamble around 8 years ago. I didn’t really know anything about him/them. I tried ordering something at my local record shop (not Spillers, this was back when I lived in Loughborough) but they just couldn’t get anything. Internet to the rescue I headed over to Forced Exposure and, a few weeks later, Dark Noontide arrived on vinyl. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for what I heard and it was definitely a defining moment in my own musical life. I’ve been an avid fan ever since, lapping up anything Ben Chasney has been remotely involved in. 6 years ago, during very hard times, I had to sell my record collection and this record was one of my greatest losses. Last year, when Chasney performed with Rangda in Bristol, I was fortunate enough to buy another copy directly from the artist himself. The first time I played that record the world completely stopped.

On the night we get a solo acoustic greatest hits show. “Greatest hits” sounds derogatory but it isn’t. I think I expected mostly stuff from the recent ‘Asleep at the Floodplain’ though.

I’ll start with the only real criticisms that I could level at the performance. Firstly, Ben Chasney doesn’t have the best voice in the world. This is no secret but on record he manages to use its broken delicacy advantageously. Live, in such a naked performance, it can at times be a little weak.

Secondly, it didn’t seem like he had a set list or anything and there was a rambling, searching vibe throughout. I’m not convinced Chasney was always sure what he’d play next. Occasionally it felt like he didn’t quite make the best choice and he didn’t inhabit the song as fully as others. He stopped a song halfway through though I didn’t decipher the mumbled explanation. He also played a very broken and completely rhythmical number (it may have been improvised as I didn’t recognise it) with giant chasms of silence ringing out between guitar ideas. This felt like it wasn’t actually going anywhere until it was interrupted (dare I say saved) by an audience member’s mobile phone.

Now for the greatest achievements of this performance. Firstly, Ben Chasney doesn’t have the best voice in the world. We get such a naked and honest portrayal though. Especially in an era where even TV talent show contestants are auto-tuned this is a profoundly important and beautiful thing that so many of us are capable of yet so few actually do.

Secondly, it didn’t seem like he had a set list or anything and there was a rambling, searching vibe throughout. I personally feel this is a great achievement. The relationship between audience and performer will be different every single time and to try and feel this out, to try and ride the thermals and circumnavigate the energies in the room is another profoundly important and beautiful thing that so many of us are capable of yet so few actually do. It may not have felt like he hit the mark every single time but we didn’t just watch a performance we participated in giant energy exchange and how often to you get to say that.

Chasney is renowned for his guitar playing and deservedly so. Compositionally though I think is where he really shines. Tracks like ‘Words for Two’ and ‘Elk River’ stood out for me on the night.

Head and shoulders above the rest though (which is so high you wouldn’t believe it) was a blistering performance of ‘Coming to Get You’. I don’t know if he’s got an effect built into his guitar or he was just pushing the drive on the preamp really fucking hard but he got his acoustic guitar oscillating like a fuzzed up supernova. Absolutely electrifying.

At the end of the set he played ‘A Thousand Birds’ from ‘Dark Noontide’ and the world stopped again.