Having seen Hide this week, I have found myself thinking about the show in the days since. I found myself unable to articulate the full extent of the impact of the performance immediately afterwards but I will make an attempt to do so here. The shortest version of how I feel about them is that they’re a truly special band and more people should experience them live.Â
They make music about uncomfortable topics, things that are difficult to process. I wrote recently about how I believe that art - in all its forms - is one of the most interesting ways with which we are able to communicate our lived experiences and feelings. Watching Hide do exactly that in a live setting brings a new meaning to the word visceral (and quite honestly makes me embarrassed about how many times I have used that word to describe music in the past).
The music itself is thunderous, jarring, unsettling; a cacophony of different audio textures that create an intense sense of menace. The industrial elements make them a shoe-in for a time-warping opening slot for Nine Inch Nails circa 1990. The samples and field recordings that form the foundation of their sound are capable of being both dense and denticulate. As a front person, Heather Gabel is a twisted knot of fury and indignance, their potent roar at times crumbling to a tortured, fatigued howl.Â
When you feel the weight of the indignities and injustices of the world weighing upon you in a way that makes you feel small, and when you find tears prickling at the back of your eyelids as you realise how the system within which you’re forced to live is rigged against you and people like you, sometimes you get a sense that there’s a scream deep inside you that’s desperate to escape. Most often the scream is pushed back down for the sake of survival. To me, Hide is the sound of that scream being set free. It is primal, and it is urgent.
Watching Hide also brought to the surface some feelings I have about the relationship between artists and audience. Heather politely but directly requests no photos, no filming, no phones during their performance. And yet this request is ignored frequently enough that they posted on social media to unequivocally state their stance on the matter. For the avoidance of doubt, the show starts with the same request, and the people who paid money to watch the show still ignore it. I found it particularly unsettling to see the request violated by women, who so often have their own various parameters of consent violated in both minor and major ways.
Again, I feel that I am lacking the ability to fully articulate my response but I found it quite unnerving - does paying an entry fee for a performance embolden people to feel entitled to take whatever they want from the show, rather than what is explicitly offered? Art may be a powerful form of communication, but directly and clearly expressing oneself is also that. The relationship between artist and fan can sometimes be complex, but where does it leave us if respect is diminished to this degree?
Anyway, if you get the opportunity to see Hide (they play tonight with Lingua Ignota, and tomorrow at their own show - both in London) then please go. I feel compelled to invite as many people as possible - one by one if necessary - to witness this purge of emotions first hand.Â
I have been so blown away by this show that it has dominated my thoughts and it is all I really have to offer up this week. Given that I have had a bunch of new subscribers in recent weeks, I thought I would take this opportunity to point out a few posts from the earliest parts of the Slowpoke archive that may have escaped those who have joined more recently.Â
You can read about my trip to Chicago where I saw Stress Positions (recently signed to Three One G).
And if you would like to ask a question or suggest a topic for a future edition of Slowpoke, please leave a comment below!Â
Thank you - as always - for being here.Â
~BeckyÂ
Amazing as ever.