Mutoid Man put huge smiles on the faces of the punters lucky enough to fill this Glasgow café/bar and performance space on a muggy night that will now always be remembered as “Mutoid Monday!” (it was, in fact, 9/11, but that’s a whole other story).
I always smile when I am reminded that Jack Kerouac wrote On The Road (his legendary 1957 novel) on one continuous scroll, a 120-foot manuscript made up of long rolls of paper scotch-taped together. It later sold at auction for millions. These factoids came back to me as part of my Mutoid musings as I pondered on my very existence and did my best to express gratitude that bands like this are now on the road – the value of it, to all concerned, and, ultimately, the pure beatific CLASS of it.
Talk about a power trio. Who? Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs? No, Stephen Brodsky (guitar/vocals), Jeff Matz (bass) and Ben Koller (drums) are Mutoid Man, this rockin’ supergroup made up of members of Cave In, High On Fire and Converge.
The first real treat in Stereo was watching Brodsky set up his pedal boards, and seeing and hearing our drum hero all fired up by the Top Gun soundtrack songs that were pumped out of the sound system pre-Mutoids. The night was to end with star man Brodsky helping load the van in the alleyway. He must have been beat. In between we were treated to a superlative, utterly professional, expertly performed and seriously fun set of old stuff, new stuff and even an invitation back to The Court Of The Crimson King (no kids, I ain’t kidding).
Brodsky was, as ever, a superb leading man, delivering some extraordinary riffage and fretboard filigree, his dancing feet working those pedals like a modern-day Astaire (if you can imagine Fred in a Creepshow T-shirt).
The nicely raucous and anthemic Call Of The Void was one of several songs from excellent new album Mutants. Other set highlights included Bridgeburner, Date With The Devil, Melt Your Mind and Siren Song: “What they say is real, what they say is true!”
Gnarcissist – “I’m never gonna fall in love … With myself!” – added another dollop of icing on the cake and Bandages, introduced as a “ballad”, was something of a change of pace, in keeping with the regular time signature switches, variety of singing styles and the sheer width and scope of the sounds the Mutoids can produce. Some call them metal, some prog, some just “alternative”, and they are, of course, all that, as well as punky and frenzied yet, somehow at the same time, supremely controlled.
This Brooklyn-founded outfit have been around one way or the other since 2012 but Mutants comes along after a five/six-year hiatus in output. Now they are back in action with Matz having replaced Nick Cageao on bass. If you accept the analogy of a rock ’n’ roll band as a gridiron football team, with the vocals and guitar the offense, and the rhythm section defense, this dynamic group of guys, on this fine, fine form, could easily win you at least a coupla championships.
All in all, Mutoid Monday was one for “the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time”, as Kerouac would have it. And the big roll keeps on rolling.
