Slint - Limelight - 18/08/14

Slint's Spiderland sits in the canon of nineties rock like a black hole, distorting time and matter around it, utterly impenetrable in its density. There's fans for whom the opening bars of Nosferatu Man are as familiar as their own mother's heartbeat - and they're all in the Limelight tonight, heavily male, bearded and bespectacled. For Slint to be just 'all right' won't do - they need to take the roof off tonight.

We arrive halfway through the hotly tipped Girl Band's warm-up set - it's improvised, it's brutal and very, very loud. Think McClusky with the Fall's Mark E. Smith at the helm. It's experimental and sometimes it doesn't work, but certainly sets the scene as well as dividing opinion.

There's some reverential 'shushing' as Slint take to the blue bathed stage but it's not really necessary - live they're a primordial beast, as the opening Glenn proves. You can see why this band are so influential right away, as the 20 year old song sounds like it was written yesterday as opposed to the same year as Motley Crue's Doctor Feelgood.

It's not really why we're all here though. Breadcrumb Trail is welcomed like the second coming, and with Nosferatu Man the band truly hit their stride, taking us from a chilly Belfast Monday night to a more primal age, where monsters dwell in the forests and the corners of our collective consciousness. Spiderland dominates the set list with all six songs getting an airing.

Intensity is the main theme tonight, the released breath after each song almost perceptible as Slint take us on a journey. Brian McMahon's vocals veer from detached vulnerability (the beautiful Washer bringing a moment of relative respite) to devastated howling, sometimes drowned out by the storm, other times rising out of the murk like a shark's fin. The spoken word of alienation anthem Don Aman is a particular highlight.

Sound is crisp and clear, the engineer dealing with the extremes of volume perfectly and we're all reminded how great a venue the Limelight 2 is. An inessential encore brings the night to a close, the only duff note in a night to remember.

Shane Horan