Canadian post-rock veterans, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, graced the halls of Salon IKSV for two consecutive evenings this past week. I was lucky enough to have the privilege of checking them out for their first set.
Thursday was actually my first time at Salon IKSV, despite having attended shows in Istanbul for over three years now. The venue is fairly large and compared to other venues I’ve visited in the city, it reminded me very much of the atmosphere I am used to finding at cozier concert halls back in the USA. They’ve got a nice, intimate vibe going on with the stage in arm’s reach of the crowd. To really supplement that familiar feeling, there were plenty of beards, beers and rocking out to be had by all.
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra don’t mess around and I was pleased to see that they kicked things off right on time. I love a good, punctual band. Prior to their set, the band’s members were hanging around outside chatting with attendees and being generally awesome people. Some top-tier eavesdropping informed this reviewer that they were quite impressed with Istanbul.
I admittedly predominantly listen to frontman Efrim’s other (mostly instrumental) project, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, in a devout fashion… so I was caught off guard to hear him speak briefly before starting up their set. With a somber tone, he respectfully addressed the recent wave of unrest that has gripped Turkey, before plummeting into their first song. As a band with very clear political leanings, it seemed rather appropriate.
Overall their set was what one would expect of them. As a bit of an outdated follower of the band, I wasn’t familiar with some of their newer songs, such as “Austerity Blues” from their newest album Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything. However, if they were there to promote, then promote they did. They played hard and with a great deal of sincerity, seemingly lost in their own music. Their songs typically range in the 6 minute to 11 minute range and pull listeners through a slow slosh of violins and guitar before climaxing into a minute or two of additional glorious banging and hollering.
Perhaps the only negative to be taken from the evening was that the violins, which are vital to the Silver Mt. Zion sound, were a bit difficult to hear. I imagine they were able to remedy that for their Friday set.
Despite this, I do believe the fans got what they came for and then some. At one point in their set, Efrim paused to ask the audience if they had any questions. The venue transformed into a dark, boisterous classroom as he called on people with raised hands to address their curiosities. In general, it mostly consisted him of declining song requests. However, it seemed everyone enjoyed learning that the band had tried to pay a visit to Taksim the previous evening, only to be turned away as police pushed the demonstrations back. It seems the Mt. Zion Orchestra got an authentic experience under their belt.
For a band with another show to be played the following evening at the same place, they performed for a considerably long amount of time. Additionally, their brief chats between songs gave the whole package a very personal vibe. It’s quite clear they have years of experience as performers, and even clearer that they still love what they’re doing. It was a nice, healthy dose of a type of music that really doesn’t venture into the city often enough and I truly hope that other post-rock acts take note and wander over this way as well.
