GORE SLUT

Fact one: this was undoubtedly one of the best gore slut gigs I’ve ever been to.
Fact two: I say that after every Gore Slut gig I’ve been to.

Conclusion one: I’m a senile old fool.
Conclusion two: Gore Slut are getting better and better gig by gig.
(the definite answer is probably a combination of both)

Seriously though, this was about as excellent as a gig can get. The venue was small, but it was filled. Rudy started off telling the band was nervous, because they were playing for a seated audience. Nothing of that could be heard in the actual gig though. They started off with a completely new song, called Inside. “It’s a song in progress” Rudy said, but it already sounded promising. The Gore Slut classic Stumble 2 made the audience feel more at home- it sounded as furious, disturbing, loud and exciting as ever. Giraffe and Bitterfruit followed- a surprising (but of course welcome) addition to Gore Slut’s set. Harsh Word sounded like it had undergone some minor changes- especially in the drums-section. Fast forward a bit to Imitation, of which Rudy confessed it was more or less ripped from a song by Wire, called ‘Mannequin’.
Freak, another new song was a track in the best of Dinosaur Jr.-tradition, with an excellent noisy-guitar bit of Rudy’s thrown in. When the band arrived at 3 Times, Rudy couldn’t find the right words. “The next song is about…euh…”, followed by a witty “Loss! It’s about loss!” from a helpful guy in the audience. The band ended with their much appreciated Crawling to Target, quickly developing to be another classic in the Gore Slut oeuvre.
The people wanted more though, so more is what the people got. Stop is a song “in the same tradition as bands as Boys against Girls, Pavement, The Fall, etc.”, Rudy said, and who am I to disagree? Stop was followed by the somewhat melancholic beauty A Little is Enough from the first album. Crawling to Target #2 ended the first encores- still very good, but not as magical as when I heard it with Franco Saint de Bakker last year. Fortunately the audience still wanted to hear more, and what they got was a fabulous and extended version of the fantastic Above the Lisa Drugstore, a perfect end to a nearly perfect gig.

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