GIG REVIEW: Six Organs of Admittance, Belfast Pavilion, 28th November 2006

I had been looking forward to this gig for a while, especially since I missed Comets on Fire last month. It was a bit of a shame that this had to clash with the best free local acts showcase as part of Belfest as the attendance did suffer.
Six Organs is guitarist Ben Chasny's full time group, sometimes it even serves as a handle for Ben's solo guitar work. Tonight Six Organs is a three-piece and I'm assuming the two guys with him are the bass player and drummer from Sunburned Hand of the Man. Recent tour footage showed Ben with the improvising drummer Chris Corsano, but this line-up is more about psychedelic rock than improv and the set mainly features material from the latest Six Organs album 'The Sun Awakens'. The trio are surprisingly close to straightforward rock and at times you could almost believe they were playing some lost music by Crazy Horse. Due to the lack of atmosphere (not helped by a poor support -sorry mate!) it took a while for the guys to really get going, but they start to loosen up after 3 or 4 songs and it is pretty special from there on. The bass player actually sings on a couple of tunes later on, just to reiterate that this is a band and not a Ben Chasny solo show. Having said that, I would also have loved to hear Ben solo, doing gentler material in the vein of 'School of the Flower' or his recent, very significant, contribution to Current 93's 'Black Ships' as a contrast to the rockier stuff.
I'm sure this guy will be around and collaborating with interesting people for a long time, so check him out next time he pays us a visit.