Event:	Sunn O))): European Fall Tour 2023
Written by:	RaduP, X-Ray Rod
Published:	01.10.2023
Galleries:	Sunn O))) - Vienna 2023 by RaduP (33)

Copenhagen - 11th September - by X-Ray Rod

I’ve seen Sunn O))) live a couple of times prior to this concert. Despite what the premise of seeing a drone act perform live might suggest: Each time has been vastly different for me.

First time was at Roadburn festival in Tilburg back in 2011. I vividly remember how loud it was. How the fog was so thick I could barely see the people in front of me. How my whole body vibrated. The performance was in partnership with Japanese avantgarde musician Keiji Haino, who added his own flavor to the music of the drone duo.

Next time was at Temples Festival in Bristol in 2015. Considerably smaller budget and visually speaking the only thing I remember clearly was how amazing Attila Csihar looked in that “mirror costume” with lasers coming out of his eyes. Trippy experience but I think I was too tired to focus.

But now we jump 8 years forward. Once again in another place. Copenhagen. But a few differences made all the difference for what turned out to be one of the finest concerts I’ve witnessed in a long time. First of all, the Academy’s concert hall is a seated venue. The spacious stage and seats allowed both comfort and easy immersion into Sunn O)))’s music. The most defining aspect of this performance however was the lack of any guests. Seeing Sunn O))) perform at their purest was going to be a treat, I thought to myself.

So how was it?

Well, I’ll get there eventually. First I want to comment on the opening act who was Kali Malone. The Stockholm-based American composer kickstarted the evening with a relaxing organ. The droning melodies were deeply moving and soothing. Not unlike what I’ve seen from Anna Von Hausswolff. The way the light was cast upon her made her look so desolate which in turn provided a very intimate atmosphere. By the last third of her set, Stephen O’Malley sat next to her and both performed a loving tune that felt quite medieval in its essence. All in all, a fantastic performer and kudos to the audience for maintaining complete silence during her performance. Judging by her huge smile as we applauded, she was extremely happy to perform for us.



A short pause was in order. And then came the fog. Lots and lots of fog. If you have never seen Sunn O))) live then I can’t possibly make you visualize just how much fog they pump out. Coming out from 2 fog machines at each side of the stage and aimed to the middle. It was like seeing two gas giants collide and you were trapped in the middle of it. I could not see my friend who sat right next to me. Right behind the clouds of fog there was a huge lightning set, further behind was the duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley and behind them were of course the gazillion amps they always use.

So, yeah… How was it?

Well, fucking incredible. I was privileged enough to score a front row seat. I was afraid that the volume would be way too much for me to handle but it turns out they played significantly quieter than the previous times I’ve seen them. That being said, earplugs were still mandatory. I was grateful that the fog came in waves in such a way that it allowed me to see them perform every few minutes in between the impending clouds of doom. It was fascinating to see them communicate with each other. The slow, subtle body language and eye contact as the riff progressed and changed in tone. The ritualistic vibe made it seem like the music itself was a living organism that had been conjured. Ever-changing and all too imposing.



The lightshow, especially at the end, was fantastic as short flashes here and there made it seem like the clouds of fog were part of an electric storm. Most suitable for this type of music, of course. 100 minutes of drone can be pretty taxing for the body. I must admit my mind wandered off for a while. After dissociating for about half an hour I came back to my senses and it was like the pressure on my chest increased tenfold. It is a unique experience, that’s for sure. For the last 15 minutes or so, Kali Malone came to the stage in proper Sunn-attire and began playing the organ amidst the waves of crushing riffs. The music started to disintegrate under its own weight and just as the feedback was cut off from the speakers the fainting last note from the organ became clearer and just like that it was over. A standing audience applauded for at least 5 minutes straight and I began my slow journey back home.

Seeing Sunn O))) live is completely different than experiencing them in studio form. It is much more stripped-down, primal and the focus is largely on the gargantuan riffs. To some, that might be a turn-off as experimentalism runs amok in their vast discography. But to me it makes their shows stand out even more. Only the bare necessities are there. If you have the opportunity, go see them. Let the cult of the riff guide you.

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Vienna - 18th of September - by RaduP

Well, how’s that? Different writers writing two different write-ups about different dates on the same tour? That can’t have happened before!

I did question the redundancy of adding an extra hundreds/thousands of words about a tour that Rod was already gonna talk about (because I asked him to), especially since I already had my contribution by posting a photo gallery. But I figured his experiences and mine were different enough to justify the addition.

For one, it would be my first time seeing the band. Then I would also have gone as a photographer, offering that perspective as well. And then, most surprisingly, the venue and the way that Kali Malone was integrated in the show was different.

In a very concert-busy year like 2023 was for me, this concert was the one I was almost most inclined to skip for logistical reasons. It happened on a Monday, therefore I would need at least two days of vacation, and it happened more than one country away from mine, albeit in a city within driving distance. And even when the prospect of something very important at my office happening the very next day came up, I flirted with the idea of just driving all night after the concert just to not miss the chance to see Sunn O))) live. Well, that work thing got rescheduled, I figured I did have two vacation days left for this year, my best friend is really into Sunn O))) and I found another friend who also wanted to see them, plus Vienna was somehow a city I have always wanted to visit but never got to.

And with the concert being on a Monday, thus taking the same amount of vacation days if I arrived that day or Friday evening, it made perfect sense to extend this one off into a longer city break. I will not go into much detail about the trip in the city itself, since this is not a travel blog, but there was some culture shock seeing how early everything closes and how I ate better in one meal in Slovakia afterwards than in four days in Vienna. But at least I got to see Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. And Sunn O))).

When the show was announced and I saw that it was billed to happen at “Arena Wien” I was a bit bamboozled at the prospect of Sunn O))) playing in an arena, not only because that would imply they’re that popular (seriously, I was surprised how many times other metalheads had no idea who they were), but also because their sound is not one I see working well in open spaces. Turns out that “Arena Wien” is just the name of the venue and is not an actual arena. Whew.

Well, it was still a pretty big room that seemed to have been an industrial building before. I was met with the huge wall of amps, but before that I was met with the information that there would be no photo pit and thus the photo pass that I asked for was useless (I already informed them than I had bought a ticket, so this wasn’t about media creds, just specifically being able to take photos) beyond just being able to enter with my camera. That generally means I have to try and be less self conscious about bumping through people to get decent angles, but thankfully the front of the venue wasn’t as packed as most concerts usually are.

This tour had various opening acts, from Nadja to Aluk Todolo, that I wouldn’t have minded seeing live, but I was pretty excited to hear that Kali Malone would be the opener considering how her last two albums were ones I covered in the non-metal feature and became some of my favorite drone albums of the past few years. And here comes the first big deviation from Rod’s experience. No organ. The same concept of one lady, one loud droning instrument, but with a synthesizer instead. It was very easy to see this as another side of the coin to Sunn O)))’s guitar driven drone, so it was quite the perfect opener in that regard, the sort of palette cleanser from anything outside of this realm when entering this room. But it would be disrespectful to how fantastic an atmosphere that Kali Malone created to just look at it from the perspective of the band that followed, because the way the room filled up with sound felt like a huge block of sound that lasted the whole performance.



Now that’s something that I could say about Sunn O)))’s performance as well, both being performances where the sound’s density was emphasized much more than any kind of sound variety. Pretty much blocks of dense sound followed by very brief moments of silence followed by blocks of dense sound, so that was pretty much the only way to tell when one song ended and another one started. Or at least that I could, kudos to the people who somehow figured out which songs those five ones were.

Notice how I’m using “dense” sound rather than “loud” sound. Knowing Sunn O)))’s reputation I came armed with earplugs and the expectation of “MAXIMUM VOLUME YIELDS MAXIMUM RESULTS”. Both during Kali Malone’s set and even with the slightly louder Sunn O))) set, earplugs were definitely recommended as they also made the sound a bit clearer, especially closer to the stage, but in both cases if I went in the back I could sit pretty comfortably without earplugs. And yet the sound still felt menacing and heavy, but just like a boulder whose heaviness lies not in its size but in its density. And that density can be a very good catalyst for contemplation and dissociation, so for a lot of the show I just sat down on the stairs with my eyes closed.



But it’s not like I didn’t appreciate the visual aspect of the show. You might notice that some of the pictures me and Rod took don’t have any musicians in them, that’s because for Sunn O))) the stage itself is like a musician. The walls of amps. The lone synth. The vertical lights. The smoke machine. And then two robed figures carrying guitars. Arms raised. Anticipation. It’s complete silence but everything is in place. You just know when the first note hits you’ll feel it in your body. Are the stories of loudness true? Why won’t they just play it already? They lower the arms to play… very… very slowly. Just like a tease. After what feels like forever… it hits. And few lived things come close to that experience.

I knew from Rod, who had already been to the Copenhagen date, that Kali might join them onstage, but that didn’t seem to have happened, or if it did it happened during the time when I was literally not looking at the stage (so probably not). A bit of a shame since even without an organ, it felt like it would’ve been some nice accompaniment, but I guess it’s also more fitting that I saw Sunn O))) at their most distilled. Nothing more. Nothing less.

There was something very unique about this tour happening as just a duo, but it does very much leave me wanting to also experience the maximalist Sunn O))) in addition to this minimalist Sunn O))). I didn’t feel the lack of Csihar, Ambarchi, Moore, or Nieuwenhuizen as something negatively missing, but rather like one side of the coin that makes you more eager to experience the other. And I’m very eager for maximalist Sunn O))) now.