Thought I might just jot down a few words about some gigs I've been to recently, more to refresh my own memory than anything, and to get my thoughts clear about them.
Opeth & Arch Enemy, Brixton Academy, London, April 26th
Hot off the press this one - which is to say, it was last night. Didn't have high hopes of Arch Enemy, having walked out of their (I believe) last London gig at the forum, but didn't expect them to be this bad. It's pretty much the kind of metal Seb Hunter talks about Kurt Cobain having killed off in his amusing though ultimately cop-out not-sure-if-I'm-writing-a-book-about-metal-or-a-Sunday-supplement-piece-about-coming-to-terms-with-my-father's-death memoir Hell Bent for Leather: Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict". Despite the band's roots in the Swedish death metal scene, this was truly old school, right down to the cheesy drum solo and blinding pyrotechnics. Still, you get what you pay for with them and the (distinctly beered-up) audience seemed to love it. The athletic Angela Gossow - who's undeniably a fantastic vocalist - certainly had the barely post-pubescent males in the mosh-pit eating out of her hands.
Anyway, difficult to be disappointed at something for which one has no real expectations. Not so Opeth. I think last night was the fifth time I've seen the Swedish Prog/Black metallers and thus far the only really disappointing show of theirs I'd experienced was their appearance at the Roundhouse a couple of years back. And in fairness, that was entirely down to the venue, which - great though it undoubtedly is - simply doesn't work for rock gigs. Not since its makeover at any rate; way too "heritage". (Don't let that you put you off getting the Roundhouse Tapes album, though - it's their Yessongs, and I mean that a a compliment). Last night is another matter though. This should have been awesome: the perfect London (large)metal venue, a fuller house than I've ever seen there and a Saturday night following a pretty much perfect English Spring day.
And yet it was really quite dreadful. My companion and I left about three songs in (although, to be fair, this being Opeth that was after 40 minutes or so). I'm not sure what's happened to them, but it sure is curious. The first thing to note is that on every occasion I've seen Opeth they've put on an immaculate show, in every sense: beautifully played, well-paced and always with fabulous sound. It was the last which immediately let them down. You can expect a mix to take a few minutes to settle down, especially at the end of a multi-band bill (DevilDriver and 3 Inches of Blood had played in support but were unwitnessed by this writer). But if anything, the mix last night got worse.
Now this isn't nit-picking. This music is as much about the quality of the sound as it is about about anything - or, rather, relies massively on that quality - so last night's wall of mush is what I suspect most people "hear" when they listen to metal. But it wasn't just that; the whole performance lacked vitality and commitment - the key ingredients of every show I've Opeth put on previously. And, frankly, much of the playing was pretty sloppy - not least the often wayward double kick-drumming, which is meaningless if not atomic clock-precise.
To be blunt, the band seemed entirely indifferent, and even bandleader Mikael Akerfeldt's notoriously laconic inter-song banter seemed cursory. A real shame. It saddens me to write it, but I suspect this well be the last time I venture out to see "Opeth, from Stockholm Sweden... "
OK, enough... more quickly, other recent shows...
Low, St George's Church, Brighton, April 16th
I don't get to many gigs in my "home" town, so this was a real treat. Duluth, Minnesota's Low have been busy creating their own little world for nearly a decade and a half now - and I can think of no more accurate definition of art than doing just that. The trio of guitarist/singer Alan Sparhawk, drummer/singer Mimi Parker and (relatively) new bassist Matt Livingston play the most elegant and stripped down Americana imaginable, a truly fragile music. The church was the perfect location setting for them, and I have to say they held the mid-week crowd pretty rapt.
About two thirds into the set Sparhawk started to let rip - by Low standards, at least - with soloing which owed more than a little to Neil Young. Indeed, if I had a criticism of the show - and this is purely a personal preference, no, need - I'd like to have heard the band veer towards a more abstract Dead Man territory.
But that's a quibble; this was a pretty sublime concert, in truth.
Devil Sold His Soul, Islington Carling Bar Academy, London, April 10th
I first caught the UK's preternaturally gifted and ludicrously young DSHS at the Pressure Point in Brighton at the tail end of last year and fuck me they were genius. They've taken an awful lot from Sweden's Cult of Luna and taken it somewhere else again: a glacial, minimalist and genuinely modernist metal with none of the genre's presentational tropes whatsover.
Six months on and they're heading a three-band night at the distinctly soul-less Bar Academy in Islington. Latitudes and This Will Destroy You open up the show, and I have to say that there's a real scene/style bands like this are carving out. They both draw as much on God Speed! You Black Emperor or even Sigur Ros as they do on, say, CoL , and the "epic" is what they're trying to achieve. They fall short though, to be honest. Latitudes lack the chops, whereas TWDY can play but aren't great writers, and both seem to lack the rigorous self-disciple of Cult or Devil, or for matter, 65 Days of Static, who my son Franck is pestering me with constantly right now.
Still, I dig their ambition.
The Devil performance, though, is puzzling in other ways. They've certainly come a long way in just a few months, but whether their journey has been a wholly good thing or not I'm not so sure. Front man Ed Gibbs has certainly grown in confidence in this time; he has something of the potential rock god about him - albeit a deranged one. But something's happened to the music; it's gone just a bit too anthem-y, and the fragile-verse-blistering-chorus Nirvana template they're beginning to stick too I think sells their naturally icy inclinations short.
Don't get me wrong; I think they could be huge - deservedly so - and I really enjoyed the gig, in a full-of-gig-lager kind of way. But when they tour the UK with Cult of Luna this summer they're going to have to up the ante again to come even close to the rigidly modernist Swedes.
All which said, I'm looking forward enough to the double bill to go and see it in both London and Brighton on consecutive nights... Bring on a frosty July!
