God is an Astronaut @ Birmingham Academy

19th Feb 2010

Reviewed by Izaac Carlisle

First things first! I would like to use this platform to formally protest at Google Maps for putting the O2 Academy in the wrong place! Thanks to your incompetence I nearly missed the gig, spent an hour walking around the city and only getting to the academy by pure luck and some good navigating by local Brummies.

Anyway, back to the music. I arrive just as the support act Butterfly Explosion enter the fray using the same formulae that have helped so many bands gained mainstream stardom, the inclusion of the ‘single hot woman’ (although look what it did to the Zutons). Saying that though, they were really good. They formed beautiful melodies, adding vocals where required, and are worth a listen for fans of Sigur Ros.

God is an Astronaut are a beautiful band. I would like to put that on record, and through headphones their music at times can be awe-inspiring. However, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed with them live. Yes, I will admit, at times they were great, but others I found them somewhat lazy (although that’s not the right word). So let me try and explain:

They are a three-piece instrumental ‘post rock’ band from Ireland, with two on guitar and one on drums but their music uses a great amount of other instruments to compliment their sound. Listening on CD you feel that these are genuine, however live they are pressing buttons on their keyboards like one of those ones you find at school; this doesn’t add to the atmosphere and the feel of the performance seeing somebody pressing these buttons that have been conveniently being placed in order.
Therefore, the performance felt recorded, almost like there was a CD being played. Saying that, I don’t want to suggest that it wasn’t a good performance generally, just not in the league of other bands in the genre live.

Overall, I found the conundrum where their music was brilliant but their live show was disappointing. My top tip for seeing this band, just bring eye patches!