West 13th, Glasgow
29 October 2002

"...A chilly Tuesday in Glasgow. All mates have gone to Fugazi gig. What is a boy to do? Go to West 13th of course, check out something random. Good choice.....it's worth pointing out that I had no idea what we were about to witness. Perhaps the selection of weird looking instruments should have been a clue. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the band members goatees, suits, and shades. It seemed someone had opened a window and let the beatniks in. Without doubt one of the strangest acts to have been seen around here recently, Volcano The Bear inhabit a bizarre sonic-performance-art universe where surreal exhibitionism mates with spiritual free jazz improvisation and begets bizarre experimental noise terrorism. They are wired, weird and transcendently wise. Tonight the audience at West 13th were perplexed and educated in equal measures by the extent of this touring band's sonic vision. Their innovative use of live free improv, electronica, shamanic chanting, and surrealist home-made instrumentation made for a wonderfully fresh and humorous concert, full of madness and surprises. Hoovers were fitted with reeds, turned into spinning digeri-saxophones, the electric guitar played with pliers and a bow and what may have been an electric razor, insane jazz drumming and wild woodwind jamming, dark, brooding electronic background washes, the drummer wearing a tom-tom as a hat while reciting poetry(?) the show was inspirational in its complexity and craziness, and, creditably, a Glaswegian audience weaned on power chords and angst were genuinely appreciative. It may have taken a wee while, though, for some of their brains to compute that what they had seen had actually occurred. No, you haven't been abducted by aliens and transported to some alternative universe of abstract noise, yes, that is planet earth down there, under your feet, and you must drink up and go get the bus home. Searching the 'net I've found a little more about the group, they are from England somewhere, have released several albums of this bizarreness, and are quite serious about it all. That's a relief. You might have thought they were making it up as they went along. Fittingly a strange fog had fallen on Argyle Street when I left the venue. I can't help but think VTB generated it somehow with their soundwaves. And this is the time of year for such wizardry..."
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