GOAT - BUTTON FACTORY

Photo: Gerry Doyle

Goat - The Button Factory

Words: David Carr

It seems a remarkable collective oversight that this was Sweden’s Goat’s first performance on our shores. Given how universally acclaimed their debut album World Music (2012) was and with having a well-established live prowess, there was a palpable eagerness to see them in the flesh (or as much as their masked personas allowed), and so it was no surprise that when two shows were booked, two shows sold out.

On a very wet evening, they begin with ‘One More Death’, the brilliant opener to their eponymous album from 2024. A near 10-minute full-throttle version ensures there would be no drying out of the damp crowd who jostle for space to groove away to the hypnotic sounds.

The twin vocal pillars establish the template of singing all the lyrics in unison before giving space to the band to lay down their weighty afro rhythms, all the while cavorting about with maracas and tambourines, ensuring energy is at a maximum at all times.

The yet-to-be-released ‘Scorpio’ is an early highlight while the deep jam of ‘Under No Nation’ sets the place wild. A near 14-minute medley takes in ‘Ouroboros’, ‘Fill My Mouth’ and ‘Goatman’ and turns the floor into a soup of nodding heads and dipping shoulders.

The immense ‘Let It Burn’ closes out the main set while the encores one-two punch of ‘Gathering of Ancient’ and ‘Run To Your Mama’ solidify a long-wished-for night as one for the ages.

Photo: Gerry Doyle