These New Puritans shambled onstage at around twenty to ten, picked up their instruments and lumbered through a (roughly) hour long set, comprised mostly of songs taken from their excellent new album Hidden.
To say this gig was in any way enjoyable would be a stretch - the sound was uniformly dire, with Hidden's deep, pounding beats giving off ugly, crackly distorts where they should have been whole and punishing, and basslines which should have been subtle rendered in an ear-vibrating tone that could only ever be mildly annoying.
Add to this the seemingly under-rehearsed nature of the band, and some truly awful onstage instrumentation (imagine those lovely wind interludes on Hidden replaced by standard electric synth piano sound, then distort it), and you're beginning to understand the level of my disappointment with last night's performance.
The sound, that was just unfortunate, but the musical mistakes were glaringly obvious, particularly in 'Drum Courts - Where Corals Lie' during which the band lost their way completely, almost stuttering to a grimacing halt at a moment when the beautiful chorus melody should have soared.
The gig's saving grace was the percussion which, although at times distorted, was well executed, particularly during the intro to 'We Want War'.
The problem, it would seem, with the These New Puritans live experience, is the fact that they are missing a vital fifth member - the studio.
The support act were called worriedaboutsatan (thanks to Jon for pointing this out). This was pretty standard stuff, a duo seemingly in thrall to Autechre and Burial performing mildly enjoyable background music with no defining characteristics. Not bad at all, but not very good either.
Words: James Roome
The support act was called:
ReplyDeleteworriedaboutsatan
Aah, thanks for that.
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