There was blood, sweat, tears and metal last time Mind had performed live as a full unit. This would be the first time in months that they have had the pleasure of playing to a live audience. Backstage, they all prepare to go onstage, and Jason is sorting Harry's dickie bow out on his neck, making sure that it doesn't choke him during the performance. This would not only be their first show in a while, it would also be one of the biggest. They had performed live shows before, but something about this... something felt special.
Jason and co take the stage happily and set up there positions, as a luminous green light shines in the background, tinting everything in a neon emerald. Rather than the usual (or unusual, depending on how you look at it) choices of costume that Mind have, including monk robes, pieces of metal strapped to cloth or, in some cases, nothing at all, they are dressed in suits , not dissimilar to The Beatles or maybe The Hives. They each have fully developed beards for Movember, and are sporting them proudly. Of course, the most significant beard is that of Aaron as it almost reaches his rather rotund stomach, his bald head shining in the light. Harry is looking as ghostly and thin as always, and a sharp blonde goatee graces his pointed chin. Stevie is at the drum kit, playing a couple of drum pieces in preparation, his face barely visible beneath his long, greasy black hair. And, of course, Jason is front and centre, his commanding presence making the audience pay attention to him. He has a side swept dirty blonde fringe, with his beard, slightly darker, joining neatly. His suit is hanging loosely off of him, and his tie is all skewiff. A toothy grin is on his face as he looks sideways to Aaron, before turning his attention to the microphone.
“Hi. We’re Mind and we’re here to wake up your neighbours, destroy your ears and scare your children.” Jason loudly declares before bursting into an extremely heavy, slow, murky riff. “This song’s new... it’s called
SAFETY IN NUMBERS!”. After a few repeats of the riff, the rest of the band join in, marked by a neat drum roll from Stevie and a guitar slide from Aaron. The riff is firmly settled, as the band start to synchronise their headbangs, Jason takes the microphone and operatically sings the lyrics, before bursting into his traditional vicious style of screaming, as is customary in the song (you’ll see when I finally get to the track-by-track of this album), and the lights violently flash as dry ice hits the floor. The song continues for its entire 6 minutes, before it comes to an end. Although Mind have performed live at award ceremonies before, they have never performed anything this heavy and it comes as quite a shock to the audience. The reaction is mostly rapturous applause, but some of the crowd, especially the older ones, look confused and slightly disorientated. “Another 9 minutes of this I’m afraid guys!” Jason takes off his jacket to reveal a more comfortable chequered shirt. He tosses the suit into the crowd, as per usual, until it gets torn to shreds, worrying him slightly.
“Now... I want to say thank you in advance for winning next years Sexiest Male. It will mean a lot to me and I’ll probably cry on the day. Of course, for now, you’re all fucking ignoramuses for not nominating me and you all deserve to be... shot in the forehead with a large calibre bullet! And on that note, our next song! This is a little ditty that may be more comfortable for your ears... I like to call it
The Aeronaut and it’s one of the only fucking songs you know by Mind anyway... so let’s go!” Jason gabbers, before going into his quite basic, yet very effective riff for The Aeronaut, complete with extra echo and reverb and a nice backdrop of space in the background, as a blue tint highlights the crowd. Jason takes a step forward and starts singing the song gently, as the band play it happily, Aaron and Harry kicking each other jokingly whilst Jason isn’t watching, like naughty children. Jason turns his head slightly and sees them, so he smiles, but doesn’t lose focus on the song. After the song has finished, he turns away from the microphone and chases the guitarist and bassist away to their original positions, Bastard V raised above his head. He then goes back to his original place at the microphone stand.
“Sorry about that, my good friends. They’re idiots. For now... I want to play something a little different. Ummm... we’ve never played this live before and it is a cover of a band called Arcade Fire... for this, I would like to welcome my dear friend, colleague and resident horny Frenchperson
Madeleine Rameau!” Jason says as the dainty French girl takes place next to Jason and gives him a friendly hug, laughing. She then sets up her own microphone stand and speaks. “Bonsoir, mon ami! You probably haven’t heard of me because Jason sucks at managing... but thank you so much for letting me be here, j'espère que je vais avoir des trucs nouveaux pour vous bientôt, enculés!” she shouts before taking a tambourine to the side of her and shaking it slightly to indicate the start of the song. As Jason changes to an acoustic he also speaks for one more time “So yeah, this song is called
Haiti, and it goes out to... ya know, people in Haiti and stuff.” The song begins as it does usually, nice and gentle, with Madeleine softly crooning over it in half-French, half-English language. Her voice is slightly more folky and higher pitched that that of Regine, Arcade Fires actual female singer. The rest of the band is on completely different instruments, Jason and Aaron on acoustic guitars, Harry on a keyboard and Stevie playing a floor tom. Madeleine does some nice, smooth dancing along with her tambourine in the breaks of the song. Jason takes on the role of Win Butler, singing out the lower pitch, backing vocals. At points, the audience are clapping along nicely, and Madeleines smooth voice, the gentle instrumentation from Mind and the French lyrics distract from the extremely dark subject of the song.
Once the song has ended, the crowd cheer loudly, since the song was a nice break from the traditional prog-space-post-metal music that Mind are famed for. Madeleine stays on the stage, now smiling widely because of the positive reception. She turns to get her own electric guitar, as does and Aaron, whilst Harry and Stevie also revert back to their original positions. Jason wires a specially made fretless guitar to a vocoder and midi controller, before sitting on the edge of the stage to the delight of those in the front row, with a couple of young women clawing at his leg. It is at this point he stands up and laughs, realising this probably isn’t the best idea. After about 30 seconds of weird guitar improvisation, the band burst into probably their second biggest hit
Lyophilisation, which is both epic and a bastard to spell. I wish I gave it a simpler name. Madeleine is playing another supporting rhythm riff and she sings the verses in this version of the song. Instead of the usual operatic, dramatic affair, she manages to make it quite deep and even more emotional than the original. Jason then comes into action with his unusual robotic vocoded voice for the chorus, backing Madeleines now quite impressively loud voice. Whilst Mind fans may find Jason not singing this song unusual, you cannot deny it works bloody well.
More visualisations appear in the background as the song progresses, with the colours getting louder and more vivid, the pageantry of the event more impressive and the performance more passionate. The song comes to its dying moments and Harry runs to a piano to round off the night for Mind. After about 20 more seconds of gentle piano playing, the song ends with an industrial flicker of noise. The cheers grow wilder as Jason pierces the noise with his voice “thank you very much! You’re not really idiots, at all! WE LOVE YOU AAAAAAALL! Have a great night and a safe journey home, people. I hope we see you around again at some point.” And on that bombshell, the rest of the band runs off of the stage. Jason blows kisses to the crowd before reaching his hand out to the fans in the audience who almost drag him in. Jason allows himself to fall off of the stage, chuckling, before returning, with his guitar, backstage.
