fallslikesnow

Five years ago I went to see godspeed you! black emperor at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen, Scotland. At the time I was waiting on a job offer in Houston, TX, USA so I could be re-united with my wife and children (the job and the adoption came through a week and a month later respectively). The Lemon Tree was (maybe still is) a pub - the band sets up in a corner on the same level as the audience. There is room for 200 people at most. It's as basic a set-up as can be imagined. There were two support bands that night - a tough gig for anyone given who the main band was. The first band were forgettable in the extreme. The second band were sigur ros . It's hard to state the effect of seeing them play had on an audience who had never heard of them before. Jaws dropped. At least two people I saw started crying. No-one went to the bar . It was a life-changing moment. One all the more powerful for the fact that GSYBE came on next and played an awesome set which seemed almost irreleva...

We hit the tarmac running. The chopper blades still turning, we ran through the smells of half burned aviation fuel and rain under a sky so low it looked like the ceiling of a hospital room. We claimed our bags and jumped in a taxi for the railway station. When the sun is out Aberdeen can look like some slightly grim town out of faerie: the granite sparkles and accentuates the fanciful touches of the architecture. The delicate crenelations along the top of a terrace of shops; the impractical turretts on a dour family home. On days like this one the city looks like it was carved out of heavy dark cloud: at any time it could collapse into vast pools of dirty water. We caught the train. "I anticipated a greater degree of total non-linearity there my friend," said Shawn. "We dodged bullets both metaphorical and psychological, although thankfully not literal." East Scotland raced past outside the window. Wasted little towns, falling apart as we passed. "...