Shock tactics

>> Live, the sonic chaos of An
Albatross is electrifying

PLUGGED IN: An Albatross

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

It was the freedom summer of 2005, at the sweltering and somewhat ramshackle Electric Tractor space, when An Albatross made their first Montreal appearance. Their record We Are the Lazer Viking was 11 blistering songs all tidily clocking in at just over the eight-minute mark. On record, it would be too easy to shrug this Philadelphia outfit off as another band who have learned what they know from John Zorn’s Naked City, along with Zorn’s stepchildren Mike Patton, the Locust and Dillinger Escape Plan. But nothing could prepare us for the onslaught that was An Albatross in a live setting—and in this arena, even Mr. Zorn could take some notes.

“I remember that show all too well,” recalls singer Eddie B. Gieda III. “We were travelling with a Farfisa keyboard that was really old and not really grounded, so there was one part in the show where I was holding onto the microphone and leaning back and grabbed the keyboard for support and got electrocuted.”

It was a hard sight to forget, as Gieda was thrown to the ground as if by an invisible hand. The band stopped the song promptly and, after three seconds of unconsciousness, Gieda shook off the shock, the band hunkered down again and, about six seconds later, the crispy Gieda was screaming his lungs out while hanging upside down from the Electric Tractor’s shoddy piping.

To say that An Albatross’s live show is stuff of legend would be putting it mildly. Their basement gigs, which they still play, have became mythic, while they also proved themselves alonside the big boys by utterly stunning thousands of Pixies fans when they were hand-picked as their support.

When the band steps onstage, they may sound like kids weaned on Zorn, but their energy seems directly mined from MC5 and ’70s soul revues. “We grew up in the hardcore scene of the early to mid-’90s, and hardcore was always really just a spectator sort of thing, I always thought it was kind of a drag. Just being an audience member, I wanted to see a spectacle or be part of one happening. I don’t care if our music attracts or repulses, but it needs to provoke some sort of reaction in the individuals watching us to make it real. Music today is just so watered down and disposable, it’s just not cutting it anymore, and that’s really why we’re here. Playing on stage for me is not really something I like to do or want to do, it’s more something I just need to do in my life.”

An Albatross have come a long way since their 2005 show here in Montreal, having since proven to be one of the hardest touring bands around. When they come back to Montreal, they’ll be playing with none other than their heroes, ’60s proto-punks Blue Cheer, and Gieda couldn’t be more chuffed. “They are easily one of my favourite bands of all time, so I’m really excited. I mean, that band has been tremendously influential to me both musically and in my personal life, without a doubt.”

With Blue Cheer and Mongrels
at la Sala Rossa on Monday,
April 9, 9 p.m., $15