Live Review: Thurston Moore, Marco Fusinato

A mere six weeks ago tonight's opener Marco Fusinato saturated Brisbane's Institute of Modern Art in the sound of Spectral Arrows; a five-hour performance which coincided with his captivating exhibition The Color Of The Sky Has Melted. Given the context one would assume that the audience on the night would have approached with some idea in mind of what they were going to be confronted with. On this evening, however, such a relentless barrage of noise comes as a great shock to the system of its unsuspecting victims. With guitar in hand, Fusinato manipulates his signal via a bank of processors that stand centre-stage in front of him. For 45 minutes this dense sound permeates the entire space of The Hi-Fi before being swallowed back into the proverbial black hole it crawled out of and returning the room back to its usual gravitational conditions.

When Thurston Moore and his band arrive on stage, it is surprising to note a noticeable absence of any acoustic guitars on the scene. In fact, other than the inclusion of a violinist, it is a pretty standard four-piece band as typified by the archetypal rock model. It seems likely that this is some variant form of Moore's new band Chelsea Light Moving occupying the stage, while the setlist that follows is also suggestive of this. CLM's Burroughs is first up, then a quick rewind takes us back to Staring Statues from Moore's solo debut Psychic Hearts (1995), before landing back in CLM territory with Groovy And Linda and Lip. It is a rather electrified and loud affair that is often not too distant from Sonic Youth's vibe, but with less feedback jams and a few more doom-laden riffs sneaking into the mix. Moore solemnly voices occasional train of thoughts between songs, but certainly seems much more at home when he is wrangling notes of excitement out of his guitar. He pays homage to yet another great poet with Frank O'Hara Hit and then Empires Of Time delivers a solid punch before Ono Soul rounds out the set.

An encore of Pretty Bad and Orchard Street seals the night, with the latter being near unrecognisable from its studio counterpart. Squashed are any desires of hearing some of the majestic material from last year's Demolished Thoughts faithfully translated into the live setting. Any such disappointment, however, is alleviated by this opportunity of experiencing a great artist perform in his natural surroundings.