Godspeed You! Black Emperor | The Church of St. Paul the Apostle – NYC | 3.17.11

Godspeed You! Black Emperor played one of their first NYC shows in eight years (playing Terminal 5 & Brooklyn Masonic Temple earlier this week) in the gorgeous venue, The Church of St. Paul the Apostle, with amazing acoustics for their epic soundscapes. The 2 hour plus set started with a wavering, swelling of noise to a screen flashing scrawled drawings of the word “Hope” until the full band kicked in cueing the projectionist to play through grainy brief films. From what I can tell the band had at least 3 projectors all controlled live as opposed to just hitting a button and letting it go. The band’s music always played well to film, (as obviously seen in 28 Days Later) and even though some of the videos were a bit mundane, (long closeups of a cat’s face, trees blowing in the wind etc) the music was able to transcend that and make them captivating. Granted it’s only March, but this is by far the top show we have seen of 2011 thus far.

They have another show at the Church tonight so go scalp some tickets to it fast.