Once
again I find myself in a seemingly familiar position with The Horrors; looking
for validation in their “live” performance after a new album of their dark,
post-punk meets (increasingly) libidinous Krautrock synthpop dance (this time
in their appropriately named 5th album “V”) which whilst listenable, offered no
great departure or development from its’ predecessor. Could The Horrors have found
their groove, only to be in danger of it turning into a rut? An announcement of
a gig at the Bierkeller, a smaller venue to their last Bristol jaunt (October 2014,
gig 927 on the “Luminous” tour) added to my slight concern, but hey, I booked a
ticket anyway as they'd been good value “live” before - well, apart from the
Munsters-lite goth black balloon phase of their infancy, anyway!
A fairly easy drive down the M4 saw me parking up
in the Rupert Street car park around the corner from the venue and getting in
after a short wait at 8. Back to the elegantly run-down Bierkeller, scene of so
many drunken rock’n’roll nights for me in the 80’s! I took a pew towards the
back, but was tempted down the front to check out openers, Baba Naga, on at
8.15. They kicked in with an opener which was all Eastern style psych-guitar
licks, reminiscent of the intro of The Doors' classic “The End”. However as
soon as the thudding, ham-fisted drums hit, it degenerated into tuneless,
lumpen pseudo blues/ psych sludge and overwhelming wah-wah riffery, with vocals
buried so deep they'd probably need to be drilled for. One number indistinguishable from the next, they
recalled that horrible lot Endless Boogie, or the worst excesses of Secret Machines.
After an interminable 25 minutes, I wasn't even sure of how many numbers they
played - pick a number between 2 and 5! - but I knew that they were all shit!
Joined the Horrors broad church (mixtures of goth
punk types, students and old rock lags - I was by no means the oldest here!)
down the front, stage left, head in the monitors but on a flat piece of floor
so as to not risk damaging my knee, aggravated by a trip on holiday (!), as
swathes of dry ice enveloped the floor (does anything else come in swathes, I
wonder?). The Horrors themselves finally emerged onto a red backlit and
strobe-splattered stage, easing into the loose-limbed Tubeway Army-like sheet
synth of new CD opener “Hologram”, monochrome-clad and angular Goblin King
vocalist Faris Badwan emerging last, then flailing around as if exhorting this
relatively slow number to speed up a bit! Luckily, the more aggressive, darker
“Machine” was next up, “V”’s best track given even more seething power “live”,
and by the soaring JAMC-like oldie “Who Can Say”, Faris’ suitably dispassionate
vocal a feature, The Horrors were in full flight.
Merely pretty darn good on CD, The Horrors are
outstanding “live”, truly coming alive onstage, the songs given added power and
potency and utterly making sense. And Faris is a consummate frontman; a
stretched Marc Almond, climbing on the monitors to accentuate his
already-impressive height, kinetic, all action and angles, teasing and tempting,
he was a riveting visual presence throughout. “Mirror Image” was tough and
lean, underpinned with a staccato keyboard pattern and droney guitar riffery,
and Faris acknowledged the enthusiastic response with, “this feels like a home
town show - thank you very much!” before the pulsating Stereolab-esque
Krautrock metronomics of “Sea Within A Sea”, another looped keyboard riff
powering this number to a growling, dissonant climax.
More
compliments from The Goblin King for, “being a fantastic crowd,” before the
elegiac opening to “Weighed Down” morphed into a heavily gloomy, slow-burn
snarl. And whilst the latter stages of the set drifted lazily past in a
whirling marshmallow haze, the penultimate “Endless Blue” snapped into
ferocious life for its’ eventual denouement, and set closer “Still Life” was a
suitably widescreen way to end a startlingly good set as it started; in washes
of Doors-like keys and Tubeway Army/ Kraftwerk robotic synth. The libidinous
groove of “Ghost” and the very 80’s (as in, Soft Cell/ Depeche Mode 80’s)
“Something To Remember Me By” closed out a superb performance. A brief word and
set-list signature from bassist Joshua Hayward (who enjoyed my “stretched Marc
Almond” comment on Faris!) before I hit the road afterwards, suitably
validated. While they keep delivering performances of this quality, you can bet
I’ll keep coming back for more Horrors!
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