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For Howling Bells, this gig sure looked like work. Hard, tiresome, rather be at home watching
Trisha in my pants work.
The kind of work which makes Monday morning's schedule as follows: 1. Can't be arsed. 2. Need A
Coffee. 3. Gonna play Solitaire for at least the next three hours and woe betide the miserable
sod who even casts a glance in my direction.
They were tired, they were grouchy and they were hardly on top form. Three things that if you're
stricken with, you should at least try to mask from your audience.
It was all brought to a head when Setting Sun started, stopped, glared unhappily at the soundman and then
collapsed. A shame, and not entirely their fault, but troubling nonetheless. Particularly as when
they did just get on with the task in hand, there were some real blasts of excellence.
Ms Bell's Song pointed intoxicatingly at what The Velvet Underground would have been like with
some proper vocalists, while Cities Burning Down enveloped you like an inappropriate hug; a
hypnotically driving pace, cut with squalling guitar lines and Juanita Stein providing the siren call
to pierce through the haze.
Which could be where the strange undercurrent of nastiness actually helped. For every good siren
needs the layer of rocks upon which to wreck their captured craft, otherwise they're just some
silly bint flopped on a beach offering favours for passing sailors.
For the most part, the gaps in the performance were the gaps in the performance. There were some
weak numbers tonight for sure - Nightingale was overlong and directionless and Let's Be Kids
Again is silly, one dimensional and trite live or on record. But it was the awkward, bi-polar
delivery and banter which really scuppered the Bells.
If this new found edge perpetuates in more songs like Golden Web, Portishead-like in both its
processed beats and its haunting, vitriolic lyric delivered with pristine beauty, then it isn't a
bad thing. If it's just something that makes attending their live shows a slightly awkward
experience, then we can probably do without it.
Workmanlike performances and ethereal beauty are pretty much opposing concepts. Howling Bells would
do well to remember that, if they continue to aim for the latter and hit the former.
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