Photo by Julia Schtri.

The farewell tour of a great live band means the audience tonight arrive with mixed emotions. Many want to scream about the injustice of it all. One of the most uplifting live music experiences are set to leave the stage, as the economics of being a touring band do not add up to a life for them.

Though the audience are subdued initially, the band seem determined to be upbeat. The first couple of numbers warm them up. Lead singer, Billy McCarthy, goes to the side of the stage to shake himself between them, obviously winding himself up for a launch into some older audience favourites like 'Chapel Song', 'Juarez' and 'Book Of James'. These combined with Billy’s exhortation to not be down get the crowd singing along with familiar and heart-felt lyrics about embracing and surviving loss. The poignancy of this is lost in the moment as the room begins to jump.

The set contains a wide range of the emotions from some funked up styling during band banter between songs to a quieter version of 'Philadelphia (The City Of Brotherly Love)' to an a cappella serenade by Billy swigging out of a wine bottle to keep his lips wet. Then, there is a version of 'Walkabout' where sadness seems to finally get through to Billy as his voice cracks. But the band’s determination to get the fans out on a high overcomes this and the last encore is a rousing version of 'Cruel City' that completed the night with Billy down in the crowd bawling out the lyrics and bouncing up and down.

This gig was a roller-coaster. There were the double-edged emotions of the songs combined with the knowledge that this was the last night of Augustines’ uplifting music therapy for those there. There was the band’s playfulness with each other and then with the audience as keyboard player Eric got the audience to practice mindfulness as the gig moved to its final few encore songs. (They had such command of the room that they really did stop playing and get silence for the audience to take two slow deep breaths where all that could be heard was the whisper of air moving in and out of lungs.) There were the familiar songs that the fans lustily sang along with and the raucous love for life that Augustines exude.

Damn, it’s over.

Further images from the gig can be found here.

It is with mixed emotion that I approach the doors of London’s Islington Assembly Hall to watch Swans. Although they are an incredible band, watching Swans play can only be described as ‘gruelling’. Looking round the audience an hour or so into the evening, although the age range is varied (the band have after all been going in one incarnation or other for several decades), every face is contorted into the same maenadic, wide-eyed expression of pleasure/pain. Is this fun? The answer is yes. Yes it is.

Swans Svengali, Michael Gira walks onstage at the beginning of the night, taut and tight lipped, his eyes darting around like a snake. He picks up his guitar and begins unceremoniously with a new composition, a live-only sledgehammer titled ‘The Knot’. This is an almost wordless track which lasts NEARLY AN HOUR, and although a cousin to the kind of swamp dirge he has been treating his audience to since 1982, 'The Knot' represents a latter day Swans aesthetic - less repetitive drone, and more rhythmical ebb and flow, increasing to a crescendo over the course of a song.

After 10 minutes of organ sound and gentle guitar picking, Gira turns away from his audience, back towards the drums. As the guitar picking gradually takes on a repetitive, hypnotic tone, he switches from individual notes to heavy chords. What follows is wave after wave of crescendo, as drummer Phil Puleo’s drum beat follows Gira’s movement as he swings his guitar from side to side. After about half an hour of bludgeoning his audience with this, he turns away from the drums, walks up to the mic and begins to chant. What follows is ‘Cloud Of Forgetting’, the opening song from their latest album, The Glowing Man - a beautiful track, more like a sermon than a song.

Swans started life in the Eighties as a no-wave art rock band, and over the years, Gira has upended his audiences with a wry smile as he makes his way through tracks titled things like ‘Raping A Slave’, ’Public Castration Is A Good Idea’ and ‘You People Make Me Fucking Sick’. Swans members have come and gone but Gira and the sound has maintained that thread of irony mixed with menace, the sense that Swans are writing the end of something, but with a smile and a wink. From the beginning of tonight’s gig at the Assembly Hall, the repetition of the drums and the turn of phrase of Gira’s guitar coming out of a stack of amps about six feet tall - it all feels like the build up to some kind of apocalypse.

But although the eschatological bent of Swans guitars and drums give off the impression they’re constantly coming to an end, Swans having lasted four decades points to the fact that they are an incredibly hard-working group. As is often the case with this kind of music, no matter how ’primal’ or ‘animal’ Michael Gira describes his output, it is very carefully crafted - he knows exactly what he’s doing. Rumour has it that Swans practice for ten hours per day for several weeks in the lead up to a gig. You can tell that the band are in sync as they move together in time, anticipating each other. They play for nearly two hours despite only playing six songs in total. The fans stand bobbing and nodding, the high-pitched whine of tinnitus beginning to echo in their ears, completely enthralled by ‘The Master’ - menacing and religious, ravaged and throaty voiced. As the band begin their final song, the punishing and beautiful title track from The Glowing Man, Michael Gira closes his eyes and waves his arms in the air in time to the drums, like wings flapping.

Goat have just released their third album Requiem, and with each album they delve further into their own sound. Almost unclassifiable as they take in a variety of psychedelic elements and mix them with a plethora of diverse sounds, everything from disco to tribal, all culminating in their unique sound. The masked crusaders are currently tearing across the country thrilling audiences on every stop and tonight they arrive in Newcastle on a high. 

First up though are fellow Swedes Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation, having just released their own new album Mirage they seem to be in equally high spirits. However, Josefin appeared to have gone missing as the band took to the stage looking particularly lost before being joined by the absent singer a short while later. Their atmospheric take on psych provided a relaxing opening to the evening, with motoric beats underpinning Josefin’s vocals their set ambles a long.

It is a set that lacks a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm, the tracks are well put together but all follow a similar blueprint and struggle to progress. In all it’s an accomplished set but doesn’t really set our pulses racing, fortunately the same cannot be said for Goat. Bounding on to the stage it’s clear that they're excited for this evening's show. 

They open with an emphatic rendition of 'Words' from their second album Commune, Goat’s two frontwomen are immediately taunting the audience and bouncing around the stage. The rest of the band effortlessly holds down these tracks as the two ladies chant a long, there is a real energy about Goat tonight. Their passion and fervour is insatiable 'Trouble In The Streets' is an early favourite of ours, it shows the true depth of Goat’s sound.

Similarly for 'I Sing In Silence', the newer tracks shine through and hold their own against old favourites. 'I Sing In Silence' also kicks off a huge sing along with its chantable chorus, but it doesn’t compare to the atmosphere when Goat launch into a raucous extended version of 'Run To Your Mama'. This phenomenal track still remains a firm crowd favourite and tonight it provides the perfect ending to the bands main set.

They follow it up with a resounding encore, that compounds their brilliance. Goat are truly one of a kind. Their set flits between a multitude of genres effortlessly, their singers have boundless energy and the rest of the band are incredible musicians. Live they’re one of the best bands around right now!

With autumn upon us it was once again time for The Bucky Rage to stage Buckfest. Seven bands for free & with barely any slack time between them is good business by any standard.

Kicking things off, with ‘Ride Into The Sun’, were The Reverse Cowgirls and their inimitable country punk. No guitar strap issues, as previously witness in Edinburgh in the summer, so maybe less drink had been had this early in the day but they were on fine form, rattling through their 30+ minutes with the barest of breathers.

The Fnords took over the baton next and punched out their trademark gritty & enjoyably harrowing set of Mono Men-esque howlers including ‘Taxi Dancer’ & ‘She’s So Sinister’ and ending with a rough and ready version of Mancini’s ‘Peter Gunn’.

Covers aplenty were the order of the day now as The Kosher Pickles served up their authentic take on the ‘60s garage classics, starting with ‘We’re Pretty Quick’ and racing through to a final medley of ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me/Psychotic Reaction’. Original number ‘Get Your Ties On’ amply shows they’ve got the skills that pay the bills when it comes to writing as well as performing.

With guitar and drum duos becoming ten a penny over the past decade or so there’s always the concern that you’ll have seen it all before when one is spied taking to the stage but today’s pair, The Animal Mothers, were possessed of enough energy & originality to safely lift themselves above the mass of similar also rans. Whilst vocally they were unable to do ‘Runaway’ the justice it deserves their own tracks such as ‘Garbage Can’ contain a great amount of punch and they fire them out at a frenetic pace. A twosome to keep an eye on.

Due to having other fish to fry back East The Blunders were the final act of today’s show it was possible to witness. A politicised blend of Killing Joke & Leatherface they rattled proficiently through their set but didn’t really manage to engage me unfortunately. Still, you can’t complain when you’ve paid nowt for the privilege.