Glenn Branca – Symphony No.6: Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven (Live at the QEH, London 30.1.88)
6 June, 2009
LP, Fierce, 1988
I (Stefan talking now) was at this concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, part of the South Bank arts complex in London, back in January 1988 for what I vaguely recall was the premier of Branca’s sixth symphony. So too, it seems, was someone with a half-decent tape recorder, for a short while later this excerpt from the show (the studio release on Blast First the year after has five movements; there are three tracks here) popped up on sometimes scurrilous Welsh label, Fierce. Only “half-decent’ though, because the massive frequencies that Branca’s guitar orchestra summon up would prove far too much for even an expensive bootlegging microphone, and thus it is here.
Coincidentally, I was also at the Jesus & Mary Chain “riot” show at North London Poly, which Fierce also bootlegged, but we don’t have that one. I’d like to hear that sometime, see if I can pick out the howl I gave when a monitor flung off the stage smashed me in the ankle. Feel free to stick a link to your rip in the comments (I can dream).
A1. Part One (15:55)
B1. Part Two (6:05)
B2. Part Three (5:49)
