Songs are many headed hydras and everytime one of their ‘faces’ is cut off, another one takes its place so that another aspect of the lyrics can be revealed and stressed…
Starting at 8.30pm as it was announced, Lloyd James included 10 songs in his set list.10 hydras presented different faces compared to the recent live at Electrowerkz where Naevus as a full band, supported Kirlian Camera. This time, the set was acoustic so naturally the rhythms and the energy were lower permitting the audience to focus more on the lyrics than the performance itself. After ‘Frozen‘ and ‘Idiots(Let Me In)‘ the audience was totally absorbed by the atmosphere, almost hypnotized, but engaged in the performance. Lloyd James seemed to have intentionally removed all the passionate and dynamic elements from his singing in favour of a more detached performance. During the previous full band live at Electrowerkz, each word seemed to be dramatically significant at a pers
onal level for Lloyd James.This time the lyrics were performed with a different energy, almost as if they were narrated to us by somebody who was completely detached from their meaning.This created a different setting for their listening and I personally didn’t realise how it was that I found myself feeling as if I was at a dead end in a seemingly suffocating environment…
It was after I returned at home that the numbing effect of this performance became more palpable. We also listened to ‘Aria/Acqua‘ from the recently released EP called ‘Backsaddling‘, my favourite ‘Oracle Oracle‘, a rare track called ‘Farmer Duncan‘ from the album ‘Enquiries’ and ‘Odour‘, ‘Bleat Beep‘. The title and the lyrics of ‘Idiots (Let Me In)’ have stayed with me since the first time I listened to this song and I alwayws try to picture the setting of which this song could be a part.What could have happened before the invocation of this song and what would happen afterwards in a hypothetical plot? Somehow the movie ‘Idiots’ by my favourite director, Lars von Trier, comes to mind but Naevus’ song is not about exposing a behaviour it is more about confrontation…This will continue to be on my mind so I will have to listen to this song/hydra with another face so that it can be revealed to me clearly. Lloyd James will support Sieben at Syria in London in October 17.
Black Light Ascension were next on stage almost immediately. This time it was proven that Naevus as a band is another hydra! Hunter Barr from Naevus, revealed another aspect of his stage personality under the influnce of electro sounds and was responsible for the electronic melodies and samples. The music ‘took’ everyone violently away from the dark suffocating web that Lloyd James had weaved with his performance. Electro sounds were wrapping around nice melodies and Andrew Trail’s sincere and unpretentious performance was positively received and changed the audience’s mood very quickly. We listened to a few songs from the band’s album ‘Ashes’ and one song that will be included in a new forthcoming album. ‘This World’ received a warm applause and the audience was really taken over by the energy on stage. If Lloyd James designed imaginary mannequins that would move to the melodies of bitterness then Andrew Trail whispered another musical phrase to them, reminding them about the brighter colours in the palette.
We didn’t wait at all for Kim Larsen and Niels Ronne to appear on stage and start the (almost best of) set list with ‘Nighttime in Sonnenheim‘. With songs from the albums ‘Sonnenheim’ and ‘The Lone Descent’ almost monopolising the programe, we listened to ‘Lucifer‘ from the album with the same title, ‘Immer Vorwärts‘, ‘Watch The Skyline Catch Fire‘, ‘My Black Faith‘, ‘Wonderful Wonderful Sun‘. This live was a rather acoustic one as Of The Wand And The Moon didn’t appear as a full band and there were no visuals that complem
ented the music as in one of the band’s best live gigs that I had the chance of attending at the Wave Gotik Treffen in 2012. Despite this, as I’ve said before, I have seen this band in different occasions and not one concert was of bad quality and this one was no exception. Kim Larsen is one of the very few performers that gains the undivided attention of the audience immediately. This is because Of The Wand And The Moon is a band with very dedicated audience who always listens to the songs and becomes enveloped in the created atmosphere. It was becoming more and more obvious as the live progressed that the communication between t
he audience and Kim Larsen was improving and was obtaining the characteristics of something in solid state. Together with his companion, the guitar with the label that reads, ‘The Machine That Kills Time’, (which is a reference to Woodie Gunthrie who had painted on his guitar this following phrase: ‘This Machine Kills Fascism‘), Kim Larsen, humble, serious and professional accompanied everyone to another mystical place…
Finally, ‘Our Black Heart’ is a venue addressed mostly to amateur and new bands with relatively poor experience as its stage lighting is basic and the stage is small and uncared. If it wasn’t for these bands’ professionalism and years of experience in the music industry this live would be of much worse quality especially since the ventilation was not adequate and the venue was in full capacity. I returned at home having listened to very nice music that makes me feel intensely and contemplate about different things and there are very few musicians who have the ability to make me ignore my surroundings completely. Until next time…
Blaue Rosen
More photos from this live can be seen by following this link