MOGWAI
Six years after their last headline tour of Australia and five years since their Harvest Festival appearances sonic-architects Mogwai finally return to Australia for an all headline tour.
As befits their wide-screen nature the six-piece Glaswegian outfit won’t be doing things by halves either, taking in a two-night stand at Perth International Arts Festival (with special guest: Dinosaur J frontman J Mascis), a headline spot at Adelaide Festival‘s Thebarton Theatre, debut performances at both the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall and Melbourne’s famed Hamer Hall, a return slot at the Tivoli in Brisbane PLUS the band’s first ever visit to New Zealand – how’s that for stamping your authority!
Almost 20 years since their inception Mogwai have carved out a niche entirely their own – often copied but never bettered – that has seen the band release eight (largely) instrumental and hugely influential studio albums (including this years UK top ten debut Rave Tapes), live albums, compilations, film soundtracks (including Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait and The Fountain) while most recently Mogwai were commissioned to provide the score for SBS TV series The Returned a/k/a Les Revenant.
“It concerns a group of dead individuals who return – not as archetypal zombies, but seemingly exactly as they were – to live in their former communities. Gradually, though, things start to unravel, the creeping unease bolstered brilliantly by this sinister Mogwai score.” – The Guardian July 2013
Live, Mogwai‘s shows are legendary taking the audience from a whisper to a scream, from darkness to light as wave after wave of sound comes crashing around them taking the listener on the most epic of journeys.
Just getting better and better the band incorporate so many sounds and textures into their music that it would take for ever to describe. There is a serious imagination at play here with songs sometimes hooking around a fierce almost Stooges style riff and then descending into a spooked neo silence before exploding with a genuine danger or twisting around some electronic loop. – Louder Than War June 2014
No better example of the above than Mogwai’s performance of their 1997 track Mogwai Fear Satan captured live @ Royal Concert Hall in January this year.
Tickets for this most anticipated of tours are on sale Friday November 7th (except where noted).