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Dusted Features
Gold Chains @ La Sala Rosa, Montréal. June 30, 2003.
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Gold Chains Rocks the Continent from La Sala Rosa
Despite a poor turn-out, Gold Chains reconfigured the mental rapscape of any poor headsod who entered La Sala Rosa on Monday, June 30, 2003 – probably with the intention of enjoying a Fine Evening of SF hip hop, but coming out reconfigured with an avant-noise semi-politico rap experience shoved with two hands into the asscrack of the Franglais divide here in Québec. Which is to say that Gold Chains "put on an excellent show."
No review would be complete without mentioning the entry act, opener, and/or warmer, who was the very eccentric Canadian (?) Mocky. Mocky is electro-pop, but his oddball stage antics border on art-house-DADA. Weird moments included a pair of pants so low he eventually took them off, a see-through blue plastic raincoat, home-made & massive Mickey Mouse ears [for the brilliant track, "I'm Mickey Mouse moottthherrrfuuucckeerrrr..."] & a strange trip through sincerely sung R 'n' B vocals by this self-described "Gino." Worth living through.
But even the kitsch charm of Mocky was blown away by the sheer intensity that is Gold Chains. Too bad a good slice of the audience was there, it seems, to revel in the self-reflective cheese. Everyone (me included) thought Gold Chains was a bit tongue-in-cheek when his first album blew from the West Leftie Coast, but subsequent releases, the infamous videos, and the live performance solidify Gold Chains, a.k.a. Topher Lafalata, as something other than a piss-take. At points political (brilliant new track entitled "Revolution") and at points unintelligible (the noise overtook the bleeding soundsystem…at one point the entire show deconstructed into a noisy riff from Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive"... at another point the noise waved over the arena, producing a Mego-like swath of tones and feedback) and at points radically innovative (thanks to beats from the absent Joshua Kit Clayton), Gold Chains is a massive machine of high-radiation word spillage.
Gold Chains does not play alone – his Posse includes the infamous Sue Cie of the Musorkian video-tribe (handling vocals and chicken-dance) & the obscure Phengren Oswald (bassist and vocalist). Sue super-impressed with a few solo rants that were as sharp as Adult.'s Nicola Kuperus and Phengren's bass playing is talented (as well as as his hype stage-jumping). So – don't take my words for it, here's a [video] and here's some [pics].
Gold Chains website: www.Gold-Chains-Worldwide.com
Mocky’s In Mesopotamia LP at TigerSushi
By tobias c. van Veen
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View all articles by tobias c. van Veen