Recorded in Camden’s Electric Ballroom in London on July 27, 2013, GOAT‘s Live Ballroom Ritual is a ripping album that captures the band of Swedish voodoo psych-rockers blowing people’s minds and taking them to other planes of existence.
The show starts simply enough, with the calm, soothing guitar strumming on “Dirabi” for over three minutes before the drums and hand percussion come in to let everyone know that they’re in for a mystical journey. “Golden Dawn” continues this levitation into some kind of sacred space between funk and psychedelia. “People get ready under the rainbow,” the ladies of GOAT sing on “Disco Fever” – a swirling, pulsing track that probably had the whole place bouncing and sweating after just three songs in the set.
“Stonegoat” was their new single at the time, and it’s a stomper that contrasts well with the mellower (but no less funkier, especially with its ripping saxpohone solo) “Let It Bleed.” The instrumental “Dreambuilding” is absolutely hypnotic, leading us to the sweaty, heavy “Run to Your Mama” that I’m sure floored the one thousand-plus fans in the audience.
Three “goat songs” follow: The somehow heavier “Goathead,” with its percussive bass,” the trance (and possibly hallucination)-inducing “Goatman, and “Goatlord” – a slow sizzler that sets the table for the eleven-minute “Det som aldrig förändras – Kristallen den fina.” It’s a massive track that fills whichever space in which you hear it. Every part of it crushes. The performance ends with the massively fuzzy “The Sun the Moon,” combining chants with frenetic drumming and sawmill guitars.
I consider myself lucky to have seen GOAT live here in the United States. I hope they will return soon. They are doing some European shows these days, but their shows here have become somewhat legendary, like this stunning performance.
Keep your mind open.
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