MONO / Pilgrimage Of The Soul Asia Tour 2022

Venue:

Esplanade Annexe Studio, Singapore

Date: 24/11/2022

Pilgrimage Of The Soul by Japanese “post-rock” band MONO, was one of my albums of the year in 2021 and so when I saw they were appearing as part of the Mosaic music series here in Singapore, tickets were quickly bought. My first time seeing them live.

The Esplanade is the major arts centre here in Singapore and the Annexe Studio is only an ~400 capacity performance space, so a fairly intimate gig.

The band (two guitarists, bass and drums) came on more or less bang on time at 8pm (I guess they are Japanese!) to a simple stage set up with minimal lighting and great sound (with a minor technical issue with the drums at the end of the first song). They started with a couple of numbers from the recent Pilgrimage of the Soul album, “Riptide” and “Imperfect Things”, which showcased their style and ability – beautiful simple guitar lines and restrained drums that suddenly burst into huge crescendos of noise. They are very very dynamic in their sound.

Purely instrumental with zero on-stage banter (aside from a brief thank you from the guitarist just before the encore) throughout their 8 song set, which ended with probably their best known track “Ashes In Snow” before an encore of “Com(?)”

Thoroughly enjoyable show – one of those that you get lost in the music and are just spellbound throughout. It was very loud though (my Apple Watch warned me a couple of times that noise levels were hitting 105dB !). I was nice to see a great concert again in a small intimate venue without all the paraphernalia of big stadium gigs…..

The audience:

Mostly locals (i.e. not the big stadium gig expat crowd), with a mix of mainly young and with a smattering of old folks like me. Very receptive and seemed to be totally engaged with the music (very little chatter etc etc)

It made me think..

Why is this band not bigger ? They continue to release brilliant albums and live they were throughly engaging

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