|
|
There has been a rise of late within Manchester of God lending his homes to the gig dwelling public. The Manchester’s Cathedral, The Sacred Trinity & St Phillips churches are all now regular music haunts, with each offering another dimension and experience than that of the Academy’s four walls. A churches architecture lends itself perfectly to the bellowing organs and the congregations gospels, and Salford’s St Phillips is no different.
Tonight see’s the guys at Now Wave pull another ace from their sleeve as they present Brooklyn’s The Antlers to this sold out crowd. There has been much praise lauded over their 2009 album Hospice (a lot of this by myself) with the underlying comment being that of the powerful emotional content against Pete Silvermans aged vocals.
The set consists of mainly Hospice material, yet this is not merely a band that turns up, plays their album then leaves. As tonight shows each song is adapted slightly to take on new characteristics. ‘Sylvia’s crescendo chorus is pushed further with more electronics, and dragged out to allow this endlessly talented band to add improvisation. As if to almost fit the grand ceilings of St Phillips, ‘Bear’ is slower and more gospel sounding with Silverman’s voice being one note from breaking throughout. ‘Two’ brings rapturous applause, along with its insanely catchy tune, and 'Prologue' plays out to biblical proportions. One new track was aired, for which I missed the name but it did present a much more bass heavy, funky sound, giving the crowd a glimpse of the possible follow up to Hospice.
The encore consisted of the excellently restrained cover of The XX ‘VCR’ which is already a favourite on the blogosphere, and extended to form an ideal ending.
Speaking to the bands PR guy before the gig, I was informed that they are currently deep into a punishing touring schedule. This can often lead to the band portraying a somewhat tired approach, or a ‘going through the motions’ attitude, but not tonight. They sounded fresh and enthralling throughout and tweaked their material sufficiently to give the feel of a one off show.
Before tonight LCD Soundsystem had the honour of being crowned ‘Gig of 2010 so far’, but The Antlers have well and truly cemented that accolade. TAGS: The Antlers, St Philips Church, Now Wave Words by: Andy Best Links:
The Antlers - Myspace
|
