Japan is famous for a great deal of lovely things. Some of our favourite Japanese exports include Hello Kitty, cherry blossom and the band MONO who hail from Tokyo.
It’s the night before Halloween and we are absolutely thrilled to be catching MONO on the first date of their European “Oath” tour, following the album of the same name released last year. It is, somewhat unbelievably, their 12th album and was produced by none other than Steve Albini before his death and coincides with the band’s 25th anniversary. The burning question for us though is, how has a band this great and well-established managed to escape most people’s radar, after all this time? We can’t seem to find an answer, as their music is a sheer delight – wistful, cinematic and pure soundscape genius. As their name suggests, MONO often start their songs with a single musical theme and build from there with lots of layers, and of course reverb, weaving it into their own unique tapestry of noise. They have been called post-rock and indeed don’t have a vocalist, nor have any need for one.
Tonight’s support act Kevin Daniel Cahil was clearly, like MONO, a fan of all things reverb pedal and gave the audience a flavour of what was to follow. He gushed as he professed being a huge MONO fan himself, saying it was a dream come true to support them, albeit playing solo tonight as his drummer was on tour.
MONO get things started by playing “Run on” and go on to play several more songs from their Oath album as well as classics including “Ashes in the Snow” which starts off with an ethereal glockenspiel riff and builds to a billowing crescendo, complete with cymbal crashes.
One of the peaks of any MONO gig is seeing their drummer hit the gong that is invariably set up on stage behind them. By far one of the mysteries we’d love to get to the bottom of is…do MONO actually own the gong they use on stage? And, if so, how do they transport it on tour? It’s such an enormous and presumably fragile item to take across the globe, especially as they only play it once or at most twice in a set. Or is there a worldwide gong hire service available? If you know the answer, do write in and let us know – we are curious.
Needless to say we were very pleased to see this pleasant sight en route to the gig. Yes, a mini gong!
When MONO appear to have finished their set there is a cry from one audience member for the band to play “Riptide” please. Sadly they don’t treat us to that beauty but do smash out “Com(?)” which goes down well. Bristol is famous for its graffiti art and if we were to sum up the gig it would be “sound art at its finest”.
As we write we are seriously contemplating following MONO to parts of Europe to hear them again soon, as we feel it is already too long to wait until their next, usually annual, UK appearance. Maybe they will “meet us where the night ends?” Until then, while we have yet to listen to their annual EP series with the collective name “Heaven” released every Christmas, we know what we would like Santa to buy us this year.
MONO – official website | Instagram | Facebook
MONO – Journey Through Hell (official documentary)
Review by: Caroline Low
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