Another Rough Trade album release show, and this time it’s from a band that time (almost) forgot… The Horrors, cartoon goths turned post-punk acolytes turned increasingly synth-powered purveyors of eerie atmospheric and metronomic Krautrock, had last been sighted on their “V” album tour, on another splendid “live” showing at the now-sadly defunct Bierkeller back in Autumn 2017 (gig 1,058). Since then, however, nothing. Nowt. Nada. Zip. For eight long years it actually seemed The Horrors had crept back into their crypt, joining Bela Lugosi in the long sleep of the eternal. That is, until news filtered through from the beyond, of a new album, and a Bristol release show. Aw, go on then…
Knowing that that damn bridge was still keeping the M4 shut between J18 and 19, however, I kept an eye on my SatNav ETA all afternoon, although I nearly ended up leaving late due to getting hooked in on a film (the schmaltzy “It Ends With Us”, I have to admit...) However, my 5.30 departure was still showing a 6.45 arrival as I left the M4 at J18, deciding on a whim to follow my SatNav directions down a country lane to shave 5 minutes off the journey. Big mistake. 5 minutes later I was sat in an unmoving queue as my ETA extended… and extended… and extended. Bah! After another 5 minutes of moving about 10 yards, and with my ETA now at 7.30, I flipped it around and hared back to the main road, tanking it as much as possible along winding but at least moving country roads, eventually coming in trough the armpit end of Brizzle and dumping the motor at 10 past 7. Luckily reports of The Horrors starting their set at 7 proved inaccurate, so I had time to catch my breath, squeeze into a house right spot a few rows back in this busy room (this one being so popular, in fact, that they’d added a matinee event earlier today!) and enjoy some chat about The Chameleons and The National with a fellow punter, before The Goblin King, Faris Badwan, led a contracted 3-piece version of the band on, fashionably late at 7.40. “A Horrors experiment, playing as a 3-piece,” Faris later said, but with a huge bank of keyboards sufficient to land a 747 with, this was no “stripped back” or “acoustic” performance…anyway, they’re more synthetic than acoustic?!
Anyway, opener “Mirror’s Image”
snuck in surreptitiously with a synth pitter patter courtesy of keyboardist
Amelia Kidd, followed by a big bassy beat overlay, whilst Faris, resembling a
“Saint Julian”-era Cope only more like a distorted City Hobgoblin, ten times
his height and one tenth his weight (!), draped himself over his mic stand like
a half man, half preying mantis, to deliver his haunting baritone vocal, whilst bassist Rhys Webb underpinned the beat
with a distinctly Peter Hook-like low, resonant bassline. New number “The
Silence That Remains” featured a muffled synth beat redolent of “She’s Lost
Control”, with Faris’ vocals particularly echoey, adding to the spell of
mystery and menace woven by the atmospheric synths, and oldie “Who Can Say” was
more upbeat, propelled by a growling, almost gravelly bassline.
“More Than Life”, another “Night Life” cut, was for me the best of the 3 new ones tonight; almost an 80’s throwback in mood and songcraft, this pulsing and pulsating number gave reverential nods to the likes of early Human League and Talk Talk. Then Faris quipped, “this [room] is literally what Rhys’ living room is like! We did most of the record there…”, before the sweeping, almost stately Bunny-esque feel of a swaying “Still Life”. The absorbing and occasionally discordant “Sea Within A Sea” saw a beatific Faris clasping a front row punter’s hand, almost as if to keep himself upright (!), then this 7-song vignette concluded with the Krautrock industrial bleakness and Chameleons-like verse construction of a final new number, “Lotus Eater”, before Faris thanked us for our attention, leaving with, “see you in a moment…”
By now I’d wormed my way to the back of the room so was one of the first in line for the signing, chatting with a fellow punter (and fellow David!). On my turn, Rhys complimented my old school goth Bauhaus tee and Edvard Munch “Scream” shirt ensemble, so I retorted with a story of my first Horrors “live” experience, the black balloon fiasco of gig 723, waaay back in 2007 (!), causing Faris to recoil at the memory and declare that, “a one-off…”. Despite this gentle ribbing, I found them personable folk and left declaring my intention to catch them on their proper tour later this year, before a much easier drive home (ignoring my SatNav and following the diversion signs!) got me home in half the time it took to get there! So, hibernation now being over, The Horrors have re-emerged, blinking into the light. Welcome back!
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