Monday
Apr212008
Sad Shields gig at Hoxton Bar and Grill, Shoreditch
Monday 21 April, 2008
Some thoughts on last night’s Sad Shields gig at Hoxton Bar and Grill, Shoreditch.
The name Sad Shields is as fraught as the band’s music. A shield can be defined as a protective device, meant to intercept attacks. The term often refers to a device that is held in the hand, as opposed to armour or a bullet proof vest which is, more passively, worn on the body. The modern day shield is also associated with the riot:
RIOT: A violent or wild disorder or confusion, a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons as by a crowd protesting against another group, or a government policy or even an unbridled outbreak, as of emotions and passions.
The word sad, on the other hand, intimates a whole other set of inverse referents. Sadness is a mood characterized by feelings of disadvantage and loss. When sad, people often become quiet, less energetic and withdrawn. However, interestingly, people in a positive mood often avoid deep information processing that may cause them to doubt the positive situation they are in. In contrast, people in a sad mood strive to change the negative situation they are in. The mood of sadness is one of the critic, the poet and the revolutionary.
Sadness is a temporary lowering of mood, but if taken to one of many logical conclusions it may develop into clinical depression. Clinical Depression is characterized by a persistent and intense lowered mood, as well as disruption to one's ability to function in day to day matters.
The music is fast and rabid and sets itself apart from normal rhythms of reception and concentration involved in the processing of day to day matters. This is not music to stay sane to. Between songs the guitarist fuses each song together with noise, feedback and half suggested notes which never really turn into melody, the drummer at times, then picks up on these rhythms, works the energy, and by the time you realise the next song has begun, you are submerged, caught up in the dummer’s injected combative rhythms which press the song ever onwards. Always a mixture of defence, critique, revelry and attack the lead singer often comes off the stage almost offering a challenge to the audience. What kind of challenge that is I haven’t quite decided.
Further more, the name Sad Shields becomes even more complex if a more archaic definition of the word ‘sad’ is considered as, though now an obsolete meaning, ‘sad’ can also mean ‘firm or steadfast’. This band made me feel something to the extent that I could be bothered to write about it, you should check them out.
http://www.myspace.com/sadshields
The name Sad Shields is as fraught as the band’s music. A shield can be defined as a protective device, meant to intercept attacks. The term often refers to a device that is held in the hand, as opposed to armour or a bullet proof vest which is, more passively, worn on the body. The modern day shield is also associated with the riot:
RIOT: A violent or wild disorder or confusion, a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons as by a crowd protesting against another group, or a government policy or even an unbridled outbreak, as of emotions and passions.
The word sad, on the other hand, intimates a whole other set of inverse referents. Sadness is a mood characterized by feelings of disadvantage and loss. When sad, people often become quiet, less energetic and withdrawn. However, interestingly, people in a positive mood often avoid deep information processing that may cause them to doubt the positive situation they are in. In contrast, people in a sad mood strive to change the negative situation they are in. The mood of sadness is one of the critic, the poet and the revolutionary.
Sadness is a temporary lowering of mood, but if taken to one of many logical conclusions it may develop into clinical depression. Clinical Depression is characterized by a persistent and intense lowered mood, as well as disruption to one's ability to function in day to day matters.
The music is fast and rabid and sets itself apart from normal rhythms of reception and concentration involved in the processing of day to day matters. This is not music to stay sane to. Between songs the guitarist fuses each song together with noise, feedback and half suggested notes which never really turn into melody, the drummer at times, then picks up on these rhythms, works the energy, and by the time you realise the next song has begun, you are submerged, caught up in the dummer’s injected combative rhythms which press the song ever onwards. Always a mixture of defence, critique, revelry and attack the lead singer often comes off the stage almost offering a challenge to the audience. What kind of challenge that is I haven’t quite decided.
Further more, the name Sad Shields becomes even more complex if a more archaic definition of the word ‘sad’ is considered as, though now an obsolete meaning, ‘sad’ can also mean ‘firm or steadfast’. This band made me feel something to the extent that I could be bothered to write about it, you should check them out.
http://www.myspace.com/sadshields
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