[ B O L T ]

The Intimate Indemnity Tour 2012

JARBOE is without a doubt one of the most charismatic, innovative and most expressive musician I ever met. The Grande dame of extreme avant-garde music already electrified the audience when she performed with Swans. After she had parted ways with them she most of all called attention to her solo work with her collaboration with Neurosis. Meanwhile JARBOE has released many records and collaborations, always composed, produced and shipped by herself, handmade in her very personal way, with many little details. No CD is equal to each other. And the magic she still did not lost…
JARBOE is currently working on the Indemnity trilogy, an intimate interpretation of a collection of songs of the Swans and World Of Skin, added by brand new JARBOE tracks. Indemnity I and II got already released and are sold out. But I have seen a few copies of Indemnity I left at the shows…

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I was much looking forward to catch JARBOE during this tour. Last time I saw her performing live was in 2009, three years ago, a long time if you ask me. Tonight’s show at • AJZ • Bielefeld is the tour kick-off of The Intimate Indemnity Tour 2012 and I was much curious, how the atmospherically dense and rather quiet music would turn out live.

As local support :: BOLT :: surprisingly opened the evening. It’s a band I never heard of before but had to deal with most recently in preparation for the Torche show on Sunday. Okay, then I will already get a musical preview tonight ;)
Information about the band are rare and they actually are not called [ B O L T ], it is just an onomatopoetic paraphrase for a black and bold bar I cannot display graphically with keys or key combinations. It is band without a band name, without album names and track titles. It is all just numbered. Even the two members have no names (although it is not too difficult to find them out). Pure minimalist. But the music it is not. The Bochum based bass duo creates pure instrumental soundscapes anywhere between Experimental, Drone, Noise and Ambient, with many layers and sound effects. The music is intensive, dense and mesmerizing. Only with a little lamp on the bass guitar-head and the enlightened logo there is no light on stage. Both guys sit on chairs while starring on scripts the have lying on the ground. So, visually not really an action performance. Some sound problems interrupted the show but the audience took it easy and listened with closed eyes.

When it was time for :: JARBOE :: the venue got a little bit more crowded, luckily. The grand dame looked very pale, downright sick. As she apologized during her show she told that she is totally jetlagged and does not feel well. JARBOE performed with only two musicians, two ladies, pianist Renee V. Nelson and guest violinist Allison Bates (Allison only for the first song and only during the German part of the tour). All songs during this way too short show got only accompanied by the piano and the backing vocals of Renee, who was able to set interesting and wonderful vocal contrasts. JARBOE performed barefooted and dressed in • Ovate • clothing, started fairly contemplative but came out of her shell step by step. After the last song JARBOE stepped down the stage and started embracing fans and dancing with them.
Once a gain a very intensive and emotional show, just way too short. And once again I bow my head in awe and reverence…
Setlist: Carver, The Child's Right, The Other Side Of The World, Unreal, Saved, Song For Dead Time, Blood Promise, Please Remember Me, When She Breathes

story & pics © Dajana