Six Organs of Admittance
Captains Rest, Glasgow
09/06/2011

To witness Six Organs of Admittance in the flesh is always a privilege, but to have this privilege granted in as humble and intimate a setting as the Captains Rest just feels…right. As Ben Chasny seats himself onstage, it’s difficult to picture such a  nondescript figure as a prolific artist and serial collaborator, but as he hunches down and plays the first few notes of ‘Journey Through Sankuan Pass’ it all begins to make sense. After all, this isn’t stadium rock, it’s beautiful musical passages trickling into our ears and there should be nothing to detract from that, not even the rambunctious cheers of the more merry members of the crowd.

Whilst he’s always been pinned down with the flannel-and-beard-friendly new folk tag, Chasny’s sound tonight takes in a lot more than so many of his contemporaries would dare to flirt with, like the bayou-dragging ‘Drinking With Jack’ and its striking strain of Louisiana country or his own melancholy shades of doom that, no matter how light in application, bring gravitas to even the most unerringly intricate of melodies.

The other notable aspect of Six Organs Of Admittance’s work is the intensity of the concentration on Chasny’s face as he plays, often at odds with the natural ebb and flow of acoustica that his fingers are producing at any given time, although it’s never perceptible in his voice. Instead, there’s just a steady outpouring of all-too-human platitudes that come forth with ease and a heavy heart, an emotional counterpoint to the technically demanding manner of his guitar style. As the hour-long set reaches its climax with ‘Above A Desert I’ve Never Seen’, no one wants the performance to end.

Dave Bowes