When it was announced that Coil would play their first live show inNorth America on August 18, 2001, I was shocked by what seemed like anincredible series of synchronicities. I had long considered Coil to beone of my favorite bands, but I thought there would be little or nochance of ever seeing them play live. Though they had recently begunplaying select concerts at some classy venues and festivals in Europe,they just seemed far too shadowy, eccentric and English to ever graceAmerican shores. Strangely, the day announced for the concert was notonly my birthday, butmy 23rd birthday, a number commonly involved with synchronicity, and anumber often mythologized by Coil themselves. Also, before hearing theannouncement, I had already planned a trip to New York City tocelebrate my birthday. It seemed as if mysterious forces had aligned into make certain that I would not miss this Coil performance. However, Idid not have very high expectations for the concert itself. Sure, Coilwere mind-bending and transcendent on record, but how could theircomplex, studio-hermetic sound possibly translate into a meaningfullive show? Coil's liveperformance is a revelation; a powerful, dramatic explosion of dynamicenergy, every bit as impressive as their recorded output, but somehoweven more potent and overwhelming. The absolutely massive soundachieved by Sleazy's digital programming, Thighpaulsandra's soaringsynthesizers and Jhon Balance's possessed outbursts clearly neededproper documenting on record. Recently, Coil inaugurated abackwards-unfolding series of four live CDs, each documenting adifferent "age" of their constantly evolving live show. To thosewilling to shell out nearly $200, Threshold House also offered alimited box set of all four discs, together with two extra CD-Rs and"art objects" allegedly "loaded with magickal intent".
LIVE FOUR
LIVE THREE
This documents a Spring 2002 show performed inBologna. It was an interesting period for Coil performances, asThighpaulsandra temporarily left the line-up to tour withSpiritualized. To make up for his noticeable absence, Peter and Johnenlisted Mike York and Cliff Stapleton to fill in with hurdy-gurdy andBreton pipes. This new, exotic instrumentation adds an unstable,organic element to the performance that works well with the setlistchosen for these shows. The disc opens with the ritualized workout of"Anarcadia: All Horned Animals." If you've heard The Remote ViewerEP, these ethnic-inflected drones will sound very familiar, notentirely dissimilar from Taj Mahal Travellers or The Magic Carpathiansat their most psychedelic. "Amethyst Deceivers" is here again, one offour slightly variant versions available in the box set. The classictrack "Slur" from Horse Rotorvator is given a faithful rendition, butBalance's voice is not quite equal to the job of singing this one, andMarc Almond's backing vocals are sorely missed. Balance dedicates "ACold Cell" to all the prisoners of the world, as well as those "inprisons of their own making." It's always been a haunting song, and thelive version enhances its lonely, melancholic atmosphere. Track six isan accomplished recreation of "Paranoid Inlay" from Musick To Play in the Dark 2,even though the tracklisting on the back of the digipack omits itcompletely. "Sick Mirrors (Version)" is a meditation on the concept ofremote viewing utilizing dense Middle Eastern melodies. The songseamlessly segues into a frighteningly intense version of "A.Y.O.R.,"the second of three songs in this set that may have been destined forCoil's long-promised-but-never-delivered Nothing Records album, nowreferred to as The World Ended a Long Time Ago. "Backwards"ends the set, a joyous psychosexual EBM bacchanalia, with Balanceuttering some of his most transgressive lyrics: "Fuck me inreverse/Normal is perverse/Everything's backwards." This disc would beperfect were it not for a rather nagging problem with the mixing, whichseems to favor Balance's vocals and pushes much of the music into amuddy, nebulous background. Even with the technical difficulties, Live Three is an essential chronicle of one of Coil's most inspired shows.
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LIVE TWO
Coil's Moscow performance in the Fall of 2001is documented here, soon after their brief stateside visit. Like theNYC show, the Moscow performance went under the banner "ConstantShallowness Leads to Evil," a tight, energetic performance highlightingCoil's most confrontational material. This is my personal favorite ofthe four periods of Coil's live shows, simply because Coil seemed atthis stage to be perfectly in control of their audience, skillfullyheightening tension and confounding expectations, all the whilesubliminally projecting their bizarre brand of personal empowermentpropaganda onto the unwitting observers. This Moscow performance seemsto be the absolute zenith of the "Constant Shallowness" show, which iswhy the bad mix on tracks like "What Kind of Animal Are You?" is verydisappointing indeed. The officially sanctioned bootleg CD-R recordingof the NYC show actually boasts superior audio, which is surprisingconsidering Coil's usually scrupulous attention to their productionfidelity. Still, this performance is very impressive, especially thepitch-perfect rendition of Horse Rotorvator's "Blood From the Air." Thefinal, apocalyptic blowout of "Constant Shallowness Leads toEvil" begins with Balance satirically answering some vicious rumorsprinted in a Russian publication: "We've heard that some of you mayhave read that we eat human flesh. However, we only do this onreligious holidays." Coil then launch into a lengthy noise assaultspecifically formulated to exorcise you of demons and brainwash you ofall your previous learning,leaving you vulnerable for Coil's subliminal psychobabble. "God pleasefuck my mind for good!" screams a wrecked Balance, stealing a line fromCaptain Beefheart's "Making Love to a Vampire With a Monkey on MyKnee." If you manage to make it to the end of this exhausting set withyour sanity intact, you may truly grasp Coil's final motto "Persistenceis All."
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LIVE ONE
The last in the live series is a 2-CD set beautifully packaged in afoldout digipack. The two discs document the first two Coilperformances of the new millennium, focusing on their Time Machinesmaterial. It must have been terribly exciting for the audience at theRoyal Festival Hall in April of 2000 to hear the opening tones of"Everything Keeps Dissolving," this being Coil's first true liveconcert other than some sallow, abortive attempts made in the early80's. Coil no doubt practiced for months, as they show no signs ofunease in unveiling their polished live presence. Disc one originallysaw limited release as Time Machines Live only available with mail order copies of Musick to Play in the Dark 2.It's swell for this material to be widely available, as it is truly agreat concert and a flawless recording. At this early stage in Coil'sperformances, John Balance had not yet adopted the dancing, screaming,extroverted lunatic personality he was to unveil in later shows.Therefore, the three tracks that make up the London show contain nolive singing, just a series of enraptured electronic oscillations thattwist around the brain, wiping out all thought but an extreme sense ofdislocation and confusion. "Queens of the Circulating Library" utilizessamples of Thighpaulsandra's opera-singing mum Dorothy Lewis, togetherwith digital arpeggiations and sexy purrs from a wounded synthesizer."Chasms" flirts close to Tangerine Dream territory, a swirlingcirculation of warm synthesizer tones that unfold like a Russianscience fiction film. Disc two comprises Coil's terrific performance atBarcelona's Sonar festival in June of 2000. It repeats the same songsfrom disc one, but adds three new songs to the setlist, including thefourth and final permutation of "Amethyst Deceivers." Bill Breeze playsviola throughout the entrancing set, adding some beautifulneo-classical flourishes. "TheUniverse is a Haunted House," a line taken directly from Burroughs' Naked Lunch, is present in a much more nascent version than the one heard on Live Four.Unfortunately, this disc suffers from two problems. First, the audiosource used for this release was not made from the soundboard, but israther a recording by a member of the audience. While pains have beentaken to clean up the sound, the audio does suffer from the technicalproblems inherent in bootleg recordings, including annoying audiencechatter and trebly distortions. Second, although the digipack lists sixtracks, the CD only contains five tracks, the last two apparentlyhaving been accidentally merged. Still, this is a rather impressivebootleg recording, and these problems can easily be forgiven and theconcert still enjoyed. We hear Jhon Balance step to the front for thefirst time, delivering a series of blood-curdling screams on "Elves,"once again making a play for the title of the most warped vocalist inmusic today.
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