February 8, 2011

You can’t help feeling that The Joy Formidable shouldn’t be here. That a band who have been consistently tipped for mainstream success since 2008 should have outgrown the smaller rooms at gig venues by now. Undoubtedly if the trio had had a penny for every time someone poured hype upon their heads they’d be millionaires by now. And looking at their rather cramped stage space tonight, this writer wonders if they had only capitalised on such exaltations, they could be playing in Newcastle Academy’s cavernous main room instead of The Hold Steady, who are holding court downstairs.

But it’s a full to bursting second room that have turned out to see the band on this cold Tuesday never-the-less. First though, the crowd have to contend with one of their own – Teeside’s The Chapman Family. As bleak and austere as tonight’s headliners are anthemic and euphoric, they open with ‘All That’s Left to Break’, a truly unsettling, doom knell, ten times more visceral than its recorded counterpart. Front man Kingsley Chapman’s lips pulled back bestially in a snarling leer while later in the set he announces a song about “killing children” and attempts to strangle himself with his own microphone cord.

It all couldn’t be more different from The Joy Formidable, who take to a stage now adorned in blue twinkling lights, beaming and waving, Ritzy Bryan’s trademark blonde bob bouncing as she leads her warriors into ‘The Ever Changing Spectrum of A Lie.’ And from the offset its clear this is going to be loud. Very, very loud. The sheer volume of ‘The Magnifying Glass’ almost rips the roof off, becoming more intense with every thunderous blast from Ritzy’s guitar. By the time they throw out one of their most gleaming jewels, ‘Austere’, they’ve well and truly hit their stride and the floor is literally shuddering with the noise.

The break-neck pace is almost breathtaking to behold as the band delve ever deeper into what is now a bulging box of treasures; the uncontainable torrent that is ‘The Last Drop’, the driving swell of ‘Cradle’, the ethereal, swirling drone of ‘The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade’ – this is the sound of a band who have taken the time to hone and sculpt their sound, to write anthems worthy of filling arenas.

By the time they hit closer ‘Whirring’, which epically lasts the best part of ten minutes, Ritzy has lost herself completely in the rising surge of feedback and riffs and boyfriend bassist Rhydian Dafydd’s head is banging so much it’s a wonder he can see what the hell he’s playing. It’s literally impossible to keep from punching the air, triumphant grin on your face. Finally we have a band capable of sweeping you away on a crest of pure giddy emotion and all those people bleating about the death of rock couldn’t be more wrong. As Ritzy purrs knowingly on ‘The Last Drop’ watch her band “rise like spirals”.

February 7, 2011

There is a moment half way through Magnetic Man’s bowel-shuddering set when their MC, the commanding Sgt Pokes, demands “to see the Newcastle illuminations.” Dutifully, iPhones, Blackberry phones and cameras are thrust into the air – and the concept of throwing up your lighters seems laughably prehistoric. Undoubtedly, tonight is a gig of the digital age, an eclectic bill that could have only surfaced in 2011, that represents and encapsulates youth. And this noticeably adolescent crowd have overwhelmingly chosen dubstep as their poison of choice for the evening.

“Lovely,” affirms Pokes, admiring the light show as the solemn meditations of ‘Flying Into Tokyo’ soar behind him allowing the sweaty audience a moment to breathe.

Although Magnetic Man, dubstep’s supergroup compromising producers Benga, Skream and Artwork, are merely opening up for headliners Crystal Castles, they could have topped this bill ten times over such is the furore of hysteria that explodes at their appearance. And while peers Burial, Shackleton and James Blake are taking dubstep beats to unusual places, Magnetic Man are taking it right out there to the masses, spoon-feeding to these teens who literally guzzle up the trio’s convoluted basslines like fizzy pop.

Earlier in the evening it was rock’s turn to prove it takes more than yer average meat and potatoes guitar schtick to impress the kids these days. And rising to the challenge first, The Vaccines battle through a torrent of scuzzy sound to deliver their heady pop sing-a-longs, causing jubilant pockets of bouncing groups with the razor-sharp sweetness of  ‘Wreckin Bar (Ra Ra Ra)’ and ‘If You Wanna’.

But the most inspiring performance of the evening comes from boiler suit-clad boffins Everything Everything, whose lush, kaleidoscope-coloured set is as bright as a button as it is bonkers. Melding shimmering synths with boggling harmonies and angular melody, the likes of ‘My Kz Ur Bf’ and ‘Final Form’ make our heads spin such is the ten-words-a-second speed which front man Jonathan Higgs croons the lyrics in varying levels of faltering falsetto. But its closer ‘Photoshop Handsome’ with its stop-start pacing and giddy chorus that proves indie in 2011 is forging pathways into ever more intelligent territories.

Skip forward two hours and its announced Crystal Castles front woman Alice Glass has broken her ankle but intends to perform anyway (as if we had any doubt). Propped up on a crutch, shrouded in smoke, hooded silhouette outlined in blinding flashes of strobe, she’s a more terrifying proposition than ever. In fact the crutch adds to her usually turbulent routine, rocking back and forth, snarling like a rabid dog chained down to the floor. ‘Baptism’, ‘Crimewave’ and ‘Alice Practice’ are violently thrown out early in the set while she manages to leap around like a demented marionette during ‘Air War’. It’s a performance more static than we’re used to from the duo; Alice’s injury removing that unpredictability factor that makes them such compelling viewing. But still, Crystal Castles are forcing a sound unlike anyone else in music at the moment, and that people, is what it takes to impress the kids these days.

February 5, 2011

On stage there are three men (one with a fur hat), and a young woman in a punky outfit behind the synthesizers. In the audience there are youngsters with oversized shirts, teenagers/people in their mid-twenties with hip haircuts, and the somewhat older, more bohemian looking 20-somethings (going on 30): Nijmegen isn’t exactly an industrial city, but it has always seemed far removed from being the Arts & Culture capital of even so much as The Netherlands, let alone the world. Take a picture at this gig though, frame it, and let it go around the world and one would think it the place to be. A good sized crowd has gathered to see upstarts Twin Shadow play in the small club Merleyn, and both band and audience form a capsule of what a small-sized gig by a young band should look like.

Twin Shadow

Somehow, somewhere, Twin Shadow has gained sufficient hype to sell out multiple dates in The Netherlands. He released his critically acclaimed album Forget last year, and now he is touring Europe in support of it. I say “he” because the album, in essence, was a one man tour de force by George Lewis Jr., who basically recorded every sound on it. Touring he has the help of a bassist/keyboard player, a drummer, and someone behind the synths. He himself stands centre stage with a guitar and a microphone. To give the band extra cachet, the album was produced by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear at the time the latter were hotter than hot with Veckatimest. Perhaps that is where the popularity comes from, because the venue is more known for giving upstarts a chance to play than for actually selling out. Somehow, though, people caught wind of this, and next to flocking to this gig the other gig in the country has sold out as well.

In about an hour the band goes through the songs on the album, which has been labeled as having a sort of Romanticist feel to it. What draws attention from the get go is the front man’s sufficiency on the guitar. Now, don’t expect him to churn out a fifteen-minute solo, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he could in fact do it. Whether a Twin Shadow gig is a time to do it is another matter, and probably the answer would be “no”, since the songs are beautiful little songs of about four minutes. To go off a la the Kings of the Blues would probably kill the dreamy momentum and the swaying of the audience. After seeing him live it certainly isn’t surprising to me that he did almost everything himself during the recording. Whether his vocals are classically trained I wouldn’t dare to say, and if you are a purist you might sometimes have an issue with it. He’s got a warm voice though, and live he on about three occasions gives in to the emotion a la a Murray Lightburn of The Dears.

With only one album there, the likelihood of your favorite song to be played is pretty gigantic. ‘Yellow Balloon’ is really nice, but perhaps the highlight is the title track of the album, ‘Forget’. I guess it normally would be the end of the regular set, but since you have to go through the crowd and back if you want to do an encore at this venue it is played before the “encore”, as in, before the last two songs. ‘Forget’ is a beautiful, slow paced song where his warm voice sings “This is all of it, this is everything, I’m wanting to forget”. Absolutely brilliant. Twin Shadow decides to end on a more funky note though, and at one point I’m thinking that a 15-minute funk guitar solo is going to part of the gig after all. However, George Lewis Jr. decides to opt against it and not go there. It would’ve been fun though, probably more as a novelty act than as an actual end of the concert.

At the end the crowd gives him a standing ovation, that is, if the venue would’ve had seating. It doesn’t, so everyone is standing already, but it certainly is more of an ovation than an applause. The singer thanks the crowd, also adding just how special it is to come into a city you’ve never been before and then to find the venue has sold out. He seems genuinely grateful for it, though perhaps it’s just the lightning that gives him a twinkle in the eye. Perhaps it is just a bit of poetic license, but the rest of this account is pretty factual I think: good crowd, good songs, and a grateful band playing them. That’s a good result on any given night.

February 3, 2011

A selection of photos from the gig by Smoke Fairies, Sea Of Bees and Lucy Rose at The Scala in London.

www.sebastiendehesdin.com

January 31, 2011

A selection of photos from Seefeel’s gig at King’s Place, London.

www.sebastiendehesdin.com

January 17, 2011

Overhyped, too loud, not original, and does she really sing live on Youtube? These are just some of the statements people have made about Essex girl and BBC ‘Sound of 2011’ Award winner Jessie J. Having cancelled her original performance date due to illness the suspense only managed to build up over the holiday season, making the gig a sell out show. But it’s all smooth sailing for cool Jessie who’s managed to bag herself the Brits ‘Critics Choice Award’ in the meantime, catapulting her to the top of the UK charts.

It’s a full house that awaits patiently for Jessie to grace the stage, while we’re pleasantly entertained by the newest addition to Amy Winehouse’ s new label Liam Baily. I even spot the likes of fellow UK artists Ellie Golding and Talay Riley in the audience. The obvious hype around Youtube sensation and acclaimed song writer Jessie seems to have gone from strength to strength, winning her the respect and adoration of not only her heartbeats (as she calls her fans), but also her musical peers.

Jessie enters the stage to the broadway-esque  show tune ‘Mama Knows Best’ fully equipped in a Vivienne Westwood corset that could make Madonna blush.

She’s ready from the very first note and it’s almost like a homecoming for the lady who keeps the city of London oh so close to her heart. The reggae influenced ‘Stand Up’ and song to all “those” haters ‘Who’s Laughing Now’ makes the best use of her stellar four-piece band, as the crowd gladly sings along to Jessie’s demands.

But Jessie, who’s written hits such as Miley Cyrus ‘Party in the U.S.A’, shines the brightest during her self penned ballads. Her impeccable voice draws beautiful heights in ‘Who You Are’ and ‘Big White Room’ and the latter is actually going to serve as a live recording on her debut album.

There are many special moments throughout the show as Jessie shares the stories behind the different tracks, all while cracking jokes with her band, entertaining an amused audience who are clearly besotted with her. Bringing out UK rapper Devlin for the performance of her latest single ‘Price Tag’, and running back on stage failing a costume change for her encore and closing number ‘Do It Like A Dude’ being just a few. It is the sheer honesty, comedic timing and stellar vocals that makes the evening something truly special to witness. Jessie is clearly aiming for the stars. And what Jessie wants, Jessie gets.

Delorean (photo credit Sebastien Dehesdin)

December 6, 2010

So how can a Catalonian band who are more used to all things Balearic, rather than Baltic (it was freezing out!), come across in one of east London’s trendier than thou venues? Rather well, actually. If you decided to stay in watching Corrie, drinking tea and eating toast then you definitely missed out.

The four-piece, casually dressed in slightly too large t-shirts, grab the opportunity to warm the cockles with gusto.  They launch into an hour-long set, carefully blurring tracks from their critically acclaimed Ayrton Senna EP and Mushroom Pillow released album Subiza into one another.

The abject noises, drum pads, spacey vocal delivery, minimal piano chords and effects pedals on top of pulsating synth drones that appear in the glorious opening track ‘Seasun’ sets the scene perfectly.

Photo credit: Sebastien Dehesdin

Electronica mixed with live drums can prove to be a bit of a stumbling block, but tonight it works very well (despite the occasional lack of cut in the heavy “snare n bass n snare n bass” beat you crave during the bigger drops). The band help their drummer out by cleverly mixing programmed and live bass.  Plus, there’s not a click track in sight (according to their friendly sound engineer, Marco, anyhow).

By second song ‘Stay Close’, the crowd are doing that reserved Shoreditch-style head nodding and studied swaying dancing that isn’t really dancing at all, which generally means “I bloody love this!” If it weren’t a school night and if London crowds weren’t so predictable, for a moment I am almost able to trick myself into thinking “this could really kick off”…

Photo credit: Sebastien Dehesdin

Of course it didn’t and was never in danger of doing so, but that was nothing to do with Delorean, or their carefully crafted set.

Clap snare sample pads and the gradual introduction of old school rave samples (think of the “wahhhh oh… wahhhh oh… a ahhhh oh uh oh ah ahhhh oh” from Black Box‘s ‘Ride On Time’ and you’re in the right ball park) help the set to develop. The second half also introduces some sparkling guitar lines and choppy, rhythmical disco chords and if anything, there’s not quite enough of this.

So, how do the songs translate from the heavily produced recordings into the live sector? Well, the songs not only stand up, but sound great. Plus there’s enough of a change from the recordings to justify seeing this band several times over.  Stand out track of the evening for me is ‘Deli’.

Photo credit: Sebastien Dehesdin

One particularly good moment comes in ‘Grow’, when the blissed-out outro synth is doubled with some wordless vocals.  This turns the recognisable line into a more predominant first album MGMT style motif and perhaps this is the gap in the market, which Delorean can comfortably fill.

Closing track ‘It’s All Ours’ gets one of the biggest reactions of the night, despite losing a little of its impact due to the lack of live backing vocals.  It’s still a great, euphoric, inspiring last track, however and as the crowd heads into the sub zero night sweating, grinning and generally agreeing “they’re such a good band”, what more could you ask for?

A little less ‘George Lamb Bull Horn’ would be top of my list but that aside, this was a thoroughly enjoyable gig and I for one, can’t wait to see them smashing it on the festival circuit next summer.

Photo credit: Sebastien Dehesdin

Frightened Rabbit

November 22, 2010

As the scene of my ‘education’, Northumbria University will always hold a special place in my heart, primarily because of the many sweaty, boozy hours I spent in its Student Union watching bands good, bad, and fucking terrible. However, as I have gradually degenerated from a hip ‘n’ happenin’ snake-hipped teen to a doughy late twenties office drone, so too did Northumbria fall from its pedestal as a regular fixture in Newcastle’s gig scene. Today, after a major refit which has included reducing the capacity of the upstairs room (and in the process massively improving its atmosphere), it appears that the place is slowly trying to claw its way back into favour, having recently nabbed a couple of gigs which would usually be shoe-ins for one of the Academy venues. If you’ve ever been to the Academy, you’ll agree this is undoubtedly no bad thing.

Frightened Rabbit’s visit to Northumbria comes at the end of a year of great success, where their third record The Winter of Mixed Drinks has very nicely consolidated the massive critical acclaim which was so freely lobbed at its predecessor The Midnight Organ Fight. Singer Scott Hutchinson, speaking to us after the show, definitely feels happy with how 2010 has turned out: “I think it’s been great. We’ve always said that as long as we’re moving forward then we’re happy. I never pay too much attention to people saying that it’s going to be your year or whatever, because, well they can say what they like, but I’ve had a fucking fabulous year, I’ve really enjoyed it. The reception to the record has been good, and the more time that people have had with it, the better the reception to the songs has been.”

In keeping with all the good cheer surrounding the band (although Scott will hear nothing of the festive season until we’re into December), they are in wonderfully relaxed and amiable form tonight. The set is a pretty thorough trawl through the last two records, with ‘Be Less Rude’ the only song from Sing the Greys to make an appearance, something which just illustrates the massive bounds Frightened Rabbit have made as a band since their earliest days. There’s little doubt that The Winter of Mixed Drinks has taken a while to fully worm its way into people’s consciousnesses but now that we’ve had nine months or so to live with the newer songs, they are sitting very comfortably alongside their older counterparts. Indeed, ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’, and set closer ‘The Loneliness and the Scream’ are two of the evening’s high points, providing just as much singalong potential as the likes of ‘I Feel Better’ and ‘The Modern Leper’.

As time has gone on, Frightened Rabbit’s recordings have unquestionably grown ever more polished. Clearly, this isn’t always a positive step, and it’s been the death of plenty of bands before them, but in this case, it has felt like a logical, organic growth, taking place as they have gradually accumulated members and grown in both confidence and stature.  Scott can’t help but feel that he may have got just a little bit carried away with the extra instrumentation employed on the new record though: “It was huge, and I went a bit over the top, I’ll be the first to admit, and it was symptomatic of me feeling that The Midnight Organ Fight wasn’t quite right. I didn’t get to finish it, if you like, and doing The Winter of Mixed Drinks was almost like venting my frustration and getting everything on there, and then going fucking way over the top. I think now is the time to pull it back.”

Indeed, as it turns out, the fleeting instances  where the band do strip things right down tonight are probably the greatest moments of a set not lacking in focal points. Scott delivers ‘Poke’ and ‘Good Arms vs Bad Arms’ solo, and it’s raw, gut-punching stuff. These songs serve to prove that no matter what strengths Frightened Rabbit develop as a band, ultimately, the thing they will always do best is to articulate the bleakest depths of lovelorn sorrow, and drag you down there with them.

This propensity with miserablism makes the band unlikely fodder for marketing types, yet still they have recently found their music thrust into millions of households thanks to a certain National Lottery advert. In spite of the odd bit of indier-than-thou vitriol, Scott sees no reason for self-reproach: “Until very recently, we were label-less, so we were paying for everything. I’m completely unapologetic about all that stuff because I do this so that I don’t have to do anything else and stuff like that goes back to the culture of downloading meaning you don’t make money from selling records. I have to make money somehow, and that’s one of the ways of doing it. A couple of people have been a bit… And I came to understand it, and now, I think I probably would be more wary of doing that in the future. I understand now that that album, and that song, will mean a lot to some people and to hear it in that setting might cheapen it a little bit, but, well, I don’t really care, because it’s going to be on for about two months, and it’ll be forgotten about by Christmas time. I won’t listen to too much stick, because you try working your arse off for four years for very little return financially, and then see if you’re going to give me shit for it! I don’t care. I haven’t actually even seen it. We’ve actually turned a lot of adverts down in the past, and there are a lot of companies I wouldn’t advertise. My thinking is that if somebody hears it and likes it, then it’s one more way of hearing the music.”

After a busy year, the band have one final blowout planned at the Bowlie 2 weekender which is being curated by Belle and Sebastian, and they intend to make the most of it: “It’s insane. I first looked at the line-up about two months ago and they added some more bands about a month ago, and it’s fucking even better. I think it’s probably one of the best festival line-ups I’ve seen this year. It’s our last show of the year, and it’s going to be our office party. It’ll feel extremely Christmassy.”

After Bowlie 2, don’t expect too much from Frightened Rabbit for a while, as Scott plans to go to ground to make album 4: “We’re going to really spend a long time doing it, I’ve got almost nothing written, so I’m going to have to go and do that at the start of the year, and I want to spend some time at home too.That’s my favourite part of it all. Touring is fine, but recording is why I started the band, so I just want to keep making records.”

There’s no question that Frightened Rabbit deserve their brief respite, and you can’t help but feel total faith that the next album is in safe hands, and it will be very surprising indeed if it doesn’t carry them still deeper into the hearts of the general public.

The Tallest Man On Earth

November 25, 2010

The difficulty with writing about a live performance from a one-man-and-his-guitar act like The Tallest Man On Earth is that these sort of shows don’t necessarily afford the writer a great sense of spectacle throw a couple of paragraphs at.  No flashing strobes, no kooky dancers, no onstage catfights between bassist and keyboard player: just a person and their guitar doing their best to convince an audience that trudging out on a freezing November evening somehow trumps listening to the record on headphones in a nice warm bed.

But The Tallest Man on Earth convinces us with ease, almost immediately. Evidentially, he is also troubled by the inherent lack of spectacle of a solo-acoustic show – or at least nobody told him that this was usually the case – as he spends the absolute bare minimum amount of time tethered to his microphone during the opening rendition of ‘Field of Birds’.  Instead, he’s strutting around the stage, grooving to his own meticulously skipping fingerpicking. He’s an engaging performer, and a warm, funny guy to spend an evening with. He’s eager to banter with the (well meaning) drunken heckles of the adoring crowd; he lightens the tone after a sober moment by jokingly changing to his “fun tuning”; he indulges us in a verse and a chorus after being implored to “play a Dylan song”. Providing a cosy sense of occasion to the affair, he occasionally drops to a whisper and palm mutes his chords to let us sing along to our favourites, and then drowns us out again when he grows tired of it.

In a way, this is all moot. Providing a sense of showmanship is just the icing on the cake when you’re armed with songs and musicianship as dazzling as this. His music is more than capable of validating itself without the vibrancy of a natural performer to enliven it, as is proven when he has to sit down for a bit because he’s (self-admittedly) tired. Take all of that away, and you’re still left with jaw-dropping stunners like ‘Dreamer’ coming at you like fully formed, widescreen musical visions; sweeping, epic and engrossing despite their thinly textured instrumentation.

What’s perhaps most impressive about tonight’s performance is his ability to be so charismatic and charming yet, at the same time, so tender with no sense of incongruity whatsoever. “I asked for a banjo. This is the funniest looking banjo I’ve ever seen” he jokes, before plunging headlong into an impossibly aching rendition of ‘Like The Wheel’ on the piano, softly moaning “oh my lord, why am I not strong?” (He plays an excellent piano, by the way. He kept that one quiet) Huge six string belters like ‘Burden of Tomorrow’ and ‘King of Spain’ sit cosily alongside his downbeat numbers without jarring for a second. This is where the real magic happens: effortlessly leaping between registers and tones in the bat of an eyelid, he always leads us with him by the hand. He’s jaunty and sober; rousing and soothing; funny and sentimental. He’s a collection of opposites which somehow cohere beautifully. He’s a textbook example of how truly engaging a one-man-and-his-guitar act can be.

White Lies

November 16, 2010

White Lies appear to have had a stylist make them over for tonight’s gig, if their stage clobber is anything to go by; gone are the khaki/old man beige outfits of Glastonbury. In their place are a much more respectable Killers/Man At C&A set of duds, sort of keeping with the continued bombast of tunes from their forthcoming album (due out in February 2011), which make up roughly half of the show’s set.

The crowd (despite getting a beginners’ guide on how to cheer from the sponsor’s compère) are understandably inactive during the songs they don’t already know. But that in itself is no indication of a dip in the band’s form – the new lyrics are every bit as cod-pretentious as those they’ve used before (to the point that “leave no stone unturned” joins “keep the homefires burning” and other old homilies suggests they should  write their own words). The music seems only slightly less anthemic than before, a factor that may not be the case on the new record itself. As a live five-piece, though, the new material lends a further dimension to that Killers comparison, bearing far closer resemblance to the US group’s more recent sound than seemed possible when considering the debut album alone. The possibility of White Lies eventually becoming the new Simple Minds shouldn’t on this evidence be ruled out.

Apart from an unfortunate keyboard malfunction roughly halfway through the set, the band deliver a tight and generally winning performance with the audience going into raptures for the songs they do recognise. An encore would have been nice, but that’s not how these shows are set up, so we’re left with a barnstorming rendition of ‘Death’ before the band take their leave.

And not to be forgotten, tonight’s support act Fenech-Soler is a band that, for some reason, it’s taken me longer than it should have to go see live, especially given the number of chances there have been at festivals in the last 12 months. They perform their New Romantics meet The Klaxons tunes with a great amount of energy (and breast beating from the lead singer) but nothing comes across as actually being a proper song; rather music with vocals would start, go on with varying degrees of ferocity and then cease as thanks was expressed before applause received. Also that headband is not a good idea.