SLINT – Live, Chicago, IL, 03.03.89
Slint was one of those bands that I feel has a little of that “you had to be there” energy, but I respect how well they’re respected, if that makes any sense. I really enjoyed co-founder Brian McMahan’s post-Slint project The For Carnation, though — saw them back in ’00 here in Los Angeles, at a place called Fais Do Do. Trouser Press sez:
Mixing a lopsided punk spirit with seemingly incongruous mathematical precision, Slint bore out a weird twist on prog-rock…Formed by former Squirrel Bait members Brian McMahan (guitar) and Britt Walford (drums) with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Ethan Buckler, Slint ruptured the impenetrably dense facade of late-’80s ugly rock. While the Louisville quartet’s 1989 debut “Tweez” (actually recorded in 1987, with Steve Albini) posits a variety of then-functionless tactics, approaches and strange sonic schematics, it set the stage for what was to come on the second installment of the band’s troubled existence. Extreme leaps in dynamic range — in terms of volume, density and tempo — are achieved by some alchemical grace without ever actually managing to deliver a real song anywhere on the record.
Slint is the most “you had to be there” band I can think of. When Spiderland was new and alone in the world, sounding like nothing else, it was shattering. But it was so influential that it’s like a lost record, impossible to hear through the thousand echoes of it.
I still remember the first time I played it, in the car on the way home from the record store. After only a few seconds I had to pull off into a parking lot and *stare at the stereo* until the disc was over. I was just crippled. I can’t imagine anyone reacting so strongly to it now.
(The track on this download labeled “Unknown” is called “Pam” on the CD I have of this show. Could be. I pretend that other album doesn’t exist.)
I remember a friend from Louisville bugging out when the first Slint LP “Tweez” came out, but it left me unimpressed. “Spiderland” was a very different story.
I never got to see Slint live, but I saw Rodan around that time, and they were cut from the same cloth. After the show a friend looked at me and just shook his head and wondered “why am I even in a band? We practice and practice and we are never going to be as good as that.” The only thing I could musically compare it to was mid-70′s King Crimson: extremely tight and heavy and dark.