The tambourine player in Brian Jonestown Massacre is the most chill
BJM play Zürich
There’s a lot of (parenthesis) in my following impressions from the Brian Jonestown Massacre gig. I saw them play here in Zürich on Monday night. Upon reflection I think the parenthesis represent the amount of subtext needed to "‘get’ the show. There was a lot of older hardcore fans, but also somebody’s middle-aged wife or girlfriend who was standing next to me in the crowd saying “you knew this was going to happen?” (after Anton stopped the band the first time), and “why is there so many people stage?” (when we noticed there was seven people up there). Sprinkled between the leather jackets and double denim get-ups was a few Gen Z who were chatting and generally vibing between themselves. So yeah, that was the demographic.
When BJM came onstage, I think half of them were carrying a bottle of wine. As mentioned earlier, the lead singer, Anton, did his infamous antics of interrupting the band a few bars in because somebody “couldn’t count to 6” (his words). There was a funny energy on stage for the first little bit, but I think the crowd was just happy to be there. They stopped mid-set because they’d run out of cigarettes. Nobody in the crowd had one, and Anton said: “what, do people not smoke in Switzerland”. Which is hilarious because literally everybody smokes here. Then I remembered I sometimes do as well, and that I still had a deck in my bag, so I threw a ciggie to the drummer.
Aside from guitar or banjo, was drums, two synth players, the bassist and the tambourine player (his name is Joel but this has a better ring to it).
They played for over 2 hours. Most of the songs were at least 10 minutes long, plus another five between each track while the roadie gave the guitarists a different axe (this is a rock term for guitar). The roadie actually might have been the hardest worker, though the Tambourine Man looked the most chill. The last two tracks were really something. They were each at least 12 minutes long. The band had been growing over the course of the set and by now there was ten people on stage. Each of the five guitarists had their own place in the strum, and I guess with psych rock the more tones you can get in there the more psych-y and harmonic they sound. Which was the case. I want go on about the wall of sound too much, but yeah, it was a wall of sound if ever I did hear one. Three of the five guitarists played twelve strings, too.
Once their final song ended, Anton and the two guys on synth built a swell of analogue and repetitive strums. It was extremely loud - despite Anton’s earlier words to his band: “Loud doesn’t mean good, loud means loud, good means good.” I thought about that as the synths grew louder and louder into oblivion, and I decided to get my coat before the entire crowd did the same. As I left the garderobe I ran into Anton waiting for the elevator, he must have left the stage and exited just behind me. We made eye contact and I gave him a pat on the shoulder, and said great gig. I don’t even know why I said that, it was a great gig, but I had an opportunity to say something way cooler and totally choked.
Anyway, it was a ‘great gig’, but the feeling I’m left with is really Kill Your Darlings or Don’t Sweat Your Idols or something because my life is not changed after seeing them play - though I have a lot of respect for them maintaining their independence for the last 30 yrs. I mostly couldn’t believe the tambourine player was positioned centre stage for the entire set with the spotlight on him (maybe because he was the most chill (aside from that time Anton made the comment about volume and the tambourine player walked off stage, only to return to his spot centre stage five minutes later, having done whatever the hell he wanted backstage)).
If you do want some more subtext I recommend watching the Dig! documentary - which is mostly about the relationship between the Dandy Warhols and BJM, but also gives a lot of insight into the almost-rise and almost-fall of BJM/Anton over the years. Watching them live now, and having seen twenty or so years of archival footage in Dig!, only solidifies the respect I have for their ability to remain independent, and consistently release great music. Their artistic integrity is second to none.