Godspeed.

I felt guilty, holding my large bottle of Corona at smoky First Avenue Wednesday night, awaiting a concert that was scheduled to begin the minute George Bush's war clock dipped to zero. But there I was. And it turns out it was the perfect music for the moment. The band was Godspeed You! Black Emperor, a Montreal nine-piece, and the music was eerie: instrumental, orchestral, immersive, building from delicate strings to the menacing, mindless bludgeon of rock-n-roll drums. It was powerful, but moreso because of the context: as the Segovia-esque guitars were pummeled by a crescendo of drums and noise, I imagined the fear of families in Baghdad facing missiles my taxes paid for. At the same time, the music isolated me from the real horror these people are experiencing--like the war movie where arias incongruously drown out the brutal scenes of battlefield destruction. I've never been at a rock show and ended up praying.

Hear it.