Review: Thurston Moore at Larimer Lounge, 6/29/12

Tom Murphy

Thurston Moore and band at Larimer Lounge

Thurston Moore came on stage joined by the members of Hush Arbors, one of the opening acts, and violin player Samara Lubelski. On the mike, Moore joked, "We just flew in from Boulder," to which some wag in the audience said, "You sure did," eliciting a laugh from Moore, who maintained a healthy sense of humor the rest of the show. After announcing that they were called "Chelsea Light Moving," the band went straight into "Orchard Street," which Moore dedicated to the other opening performer, Anne Waldman, whom he described as one of the most significant voices in American poetry since Moore was a kid.

Tom Murphy

Thurston Moore and band at Larimer Lounge

The song's introductory melody struck a reflective tone like "Fearless" by Pink Floyd. But then the song began its slow ascent into emotional plateaus until the sounds blurred together into something indistinguishable from the earlier part of the song yet made from its sonic components. And just as quickly as the dense cloud of sounds formed, it dissolved into silence.

"Ono Soul" sounded like a long-lost Sonic Youth song circa Goo, and when Moore and Keith Wood of Hush Arbors came together to sculpt feedback with masterful skill and intensity with their guitars, at times it sounded like a live sample of a section of the intro to "Titanium Exposé." The rest of the time, the two men created a gyrating squall that definitely went off the deep end, but everyone came right back into the song's refrain in an instant.

After the haunted, flamenco-inflected "Mina Loy," Moore and company performed "Circulation," during which Moore seemed to employ sounds from across much of his repertoire as a guitar wizard but with a subtlety and grace not often attributed to Moore, who can be a wild and bombastic a player. In fact this whole set was an excellent cross-section of the kinds of sounds Moore has made in his long career and a testament to his ability to not just write a solid pop song but also to bring in avant-garde ideas and sounds and make them all accessible within the overall logic of a song.

After "Burroughs" and its spiral accents, it turned out that Wood had broken a string, so Moore introduced us to Lubelski and drummer John Moloney, who, we were told, might be a little dangerous. He also told us that he had been working on a book with Michael Levine, with ties to Colorado, called Grunge. Moore emphasized this was not his title and that he had suggested Do Not Become Famous, which is a much more apt title.

He mentioned that Levine had lived in Denver in the early '80s or so, during the time when the Fluid was around, and then he solicited from the audience the name of the band that had lead into the Fluid with the song, "My Dad is a Fucking Alcoholic." Some of us yelled out, "Frantix." Apparently the band had been talking about hardcore 7-inches on the road.

Moore also made an observation about the silliness of micro-nationalism even within states, and when someone booed his mention of Boulder, he quipped, "You put the 'B.O.' in Boulder." People were a little spicy tonight, and Moore handled it well and with great humor. The set proper ended with "Psychic Hearts," but the enthusiasm in the crowd was high enough that the quartet came back out for an encore consisting of "See-Through Playmate" and the almost garage rock "Staring Statues."

Tom Murphy

Thurston Moore at Larimer Lounge

Location Info

Venue

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Larimer Lounge

2721 Larimer St., Denver, CO

Category: Music

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