Wednesday 28/09/05 Smog @ The Scala, London

 

I bought this guitar/To pledge my love - Smog’s ‘Rock Bottom Riser’

 

Bill Callahan holds his acoustic high and close to his chest, plucking the strings like a forlorn, broken man. For nearly fifteen years now Callahan’s outfit (Smog), (essentially an outlet for his bleak and often disarmingly intimate songwriting), have recorded some of the most quietly influential music of the 90s alongside other similar lo-fi ambassadors such as Sebadoh and the late Elliot Smith. The Scala is hushed and in what can only be described as awe at being in this rarefied and very special company. Indeed, it’s the first time Gigwise has ever attended a show where the crowd have urged each other to fall to a pin-drop silence before a single note is played.

 

The majority of tonight’s set is plucked from this year’s ‘A River Ain’t Too Much To Love’, one of the more relaxed records of (Smog)’s career. But a relaxed (Smog) (the brackets were added in 2001, punctuation fans) is hardly sitting at a wooden porch smiling at the world; lines like those on ‘Say Valley Maker’, Because there is no love/Where there is no obstacle, show that the well of anxiety and reminiscing that Callahan has so successfully mined for this long shows no sign of running dry just yet. Also recalling the likes of Nick Cave and The Magnetic Fields, (Smog)’s set is an expert lesson in bittersweet slow-burn lullabies touched with beauty, their roots in more alternative-than-thou indie and classic americana. The air of intimacy is only increased as the crowd calls out requests in increasingly desperate tones; Callahan however rarely talks, choosing to channel everything into his songs(if the way he winces as he sings is anything to go by). Despite the percussion’s skeletal core Gigwise’s favourite moment comes during ‘Blood Red Bird’, from 1997’s masterwork ‘Red Apple Falls’, as the drummer scratches the cymbal with the tip of his drumstick creating an atonal sound that is as thrilling as it is eerie. Which, if we think about it, neatly sums up the entire appeal of (Smog).

 

As the house lights come up a solitary member of the audience can be heard complaining about the lack of older material played. However, after worshipping Dylan earlier in the week with ‘No Direction Home’ and having just been in a melancholic nirvana for the last 90 minutes, Gigwise feels truly spoilt. On 2002’s ‘A Hit’ Callahan sang I’ll never be a rock and roll saint, but judging from the brief flicker of a smile before walking off stage, even (Smog)’s frontman must feel that tonight he came pretty damn close.

Photo by: Simon Leak