God Is An Astronaut’s performance begins, fittingly, with clips of Apollo astronauts walking towards their rocket. Next, eerie black and white images of the Moon appear, all soundtracked by ‘Twilight’ from the band’s 2002 debut album.
The visuals, projected onto a massive screen behind the band, deserve – and get – a cheer of their own. The next few songs feature clips from World War II, disasters in Africa and lots and lots of explosions. The results are never less than captivating.
The incredible visuals give each accompanying track a unique persona, and the number of mobile phones held high to capture the images onscreen are a testament to that. The 2004 single ‘Fragile’ runs with images of a chimp and a child playing, as unsettling as the song’s intense ebb and flow is itself.
As an audiovisual experience, God Is An Astronaut are an intriguing example of how images and sounds can work together. But musically, the band occasionally miss the mark, aiming for majesty but merely battering us into submission. Next time, perhaps they should work harder on their tunes and give less attention to their sugnarls
per-sized riffs.
Support comes from the promising Dry County and Tracer AMC, the latter trading in the same kind of head-down instrumental ambience as the headliners. The support’s impact was noticeably lessened by the lack of accompanying visuals, which really emphasises how significant a part of the show they are.