Tonight's performance from the already legendary Sunn O))) was sold out and the most packed I've seen this venue. This year's Monoliths and Dimensions found the band expanding their palate and using Austrian vocal choirs, Earth's Dylan Carlson, Tubular Bells, jazz sections, keyboards and Mayhem's Attila Csihar, thus taking the directions suggested by their Black & White releases even further.

Perversely, just as their sound has integrated a myriad of fresh elements, Sunn O))) decided to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of debut release The Grimmrobe Demos by performing it in full. Tonight's performance continued this minimal/back to roots approach. The programme reminding all that this would just be Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson with two Les Paul guitars, 4 Sunn fullstacks, and 4 Ampeg bass stacks.

This was the first time I'd seen Sunn O))), who, let's remember, have taken the extremes of drones and feedback further than Metal Machine Music, further than Glenn Branca, further than early-Swans, further than Sonic Youth - latching onto the sludge of the Melvins and the mythic Earth 2, now also eclipsed. Like Earth, Sunn O))) have even gone further than My Bloody Valentine did with their fabled 'Holocaust.' I didn't bother with MBV's reunion, having caught the same show twice in the early 90's, but the fuss the 21st Century crowd made over that (despite being pussies with earplugs!) made me wonder where they'd been. Shields & co did that for about 20 minutes; Sunn O))) do that thing for about an hour. That's the set!!

The abstract space of The Custard Factory suited Sunn O))) perfectly, the audience packed together as medieval chants and dry ice began to fill the venue. Something was happening.....nothing could be seen, but vibrations were present as Sunn O))) began the first of many riffs - contrary to the 'Emperor's New Clothes' notion that they're just a detuned wall of noise and all music has mutated to metal, Sunn O))) seemed to be coming back round to certain riffs again. There is structure to what might seem chaos.....

Perhaps it was walking on Tony Iommi's Star on Broad Street earlier in the day that helped me channel the huge minimal takes on Sabbath-riffs stretched out over an hour or so amid dense dry ice that recalled the Do-Long Bridge scene from Apocalypse Now! The clouds drifted across the audience and as the drones continued, no one could see the performers...so strange for an audience to be entertained by a void. It all made perfect sense......

After 20 minutes or so, green lights began to filter through the smog and sight was made of Anderson and O'Malley purveying a sonic doom and their gloom axes respectively. I briefly pictured:

i) a mass outbreak of tinnitus
ii) every window cracking in the surrounding two-mile zone
iii) Friday ravers speaking in tongues
iv) a boyfriend and girlfriend attempting to locate each other afflicted with tunnel vision
v) STM being lost and maybe never located again...sometimes I wonder if there was anything before or after Sunn O))).....

As the wonderful 33 1/3 book on Loveless informs you, the intention of Shields' 'Holocaust' was to create something like bliss - the feedback centre of 'You Made Me Realise' initially uncomfortable and something that the audience has to tune in to, moving through unpleasantness to some psychedelic form of transcendence. This is kind of what Sunn O))) are doing...but for much longer...and without a surrounding pop song.

I felt as relaxed as the quotes on the back of Earth 2, particularly "Afterwards everything seemed right with the world." The silence after perhaps Zen-calm created by Sunn O)))'s performance, or maybe it was just hearing loss on my part. It's not often that the beer bottle in your hand vibrates as a band plays..

As the sea of sound expanded, Anderson & O'Malley dressed in their trademark robes took turns raising their axes and crashing them down on those infinite riffs of doom - loved the fact Anderson seemed to be drinking a bottle of something or other. Perhaps to anaesthetize himself against the next wall of noise? To be fair, not much of it was pitched irritatingly or the kind of sonic noise that Bush-Cheney or the IDF would inflict on their enemies to fight a War on Terror.

Sunn O)))'s performance was a spectacle - perhaps some might not get the harsh doom of some of the records, or may not find the thought of two guys with two guitars and a wall of speakers that exciting a prospect. But the dry ice, the cloaks, the hail, and the wall of speakers with white light shining through all heightened the experience - everything existing in an infinite present tense. Heck, the mighty Sunn O))) even got the kind of audience reaction you'd expect from a stadium band - amused by the perplexed workman next to me who couldn't believe this was it...

Since picking up White 1, I've been uncovering the works of Sunn O))) and their many relatives (Burning Witch, Khanate, Thorr's Hammer etc) and become enamoured with a reduction of rock that's taken itself to the limit (and beyond) with each release. I'm not sure every home should have a Sunn O))) record - though they are handy in disputes with unpleasant neighbours...but everyone should catch the live experience of Sunn O))). As ever, Sunn O))) set the controls for the heart of the drone, and it's hard to think of before and after - as the record sleeves say: MAXIMUM VOLUME YIELDS MAXIMUM RESULTS.