I did worry as I walked up to Project House for the gig that it had been an overly ambitious booking for The Horrors to be playing this venue.
Project House is a 1,000-capacity warehouse style space a steep step up from the 300-capacity Belgrave Music Hall that had taken a while to sell out almost a year ago.
The concern of a big space sparsely populated dissipated as I stepped through the entrance. Curtains had been pulled along the standing area to reduce the capacity by about a third, making it a far more intimate, dark and atmospheric experience than usual at that venue and by the time the headliners were on stage, the standing area was busy with an expectant crowd.
Around half that crowd were there in time to see the support act, Glasgow-based two-piece Man of Moon, who have been releasing music for a decade now, a good choice of support who certainly overlap sonically with the headliners.
Bathed in blue light as they take to the stage, the ensuing 30 minute set is well received. Pounding rhythms through the metronomic drumming of Iain Stewart and the shimmering guitar work and vocals of founding member Chris Bainbridge hit the right spot, the short set is varied and fans of Suicide, Jesus & Mary Chain, Mogwai and the Krautrock bands like Neu! and Can will find plenty to like in their music.
The Horrors
Line up changes can be the death knell of a relatively successful band and only Faris Badwan (vocals) and Rhys Webb (bass) remain from the original line up after several amicable departures in more recent years. They aren’t a band that has ever stood still though, especially with their sound.
Based on tonight and the recent album ‘Night Life’ it seems to have breathed new life into the band creatively, large parts of the album veering between an industrial sound that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Nine Inch Nails record and the gentler, reflective tracks evoking elements of a rougher-edged Talk Talk and Japan.
Another reason the changes don’t seem to have negatively impacted the band live, is that a large focus from the media has always centred around lead-singer Faris and he rightly remains the focal point of the band for the crowd. Tonight, he delivers confidently while waving arms, spinning on his heels, stretches his arms out Christ the Redeemer style and bends doubled over while supported by his mic stand. His movements would put an inflatable figure outside an American car dealership to shame and he’s captivating to watch because of it.
The shuffling drum beat to the start of set opener ‘The Silence That Remains’ lulls you into it, feeling like a baggy track from the early 90’s, but that soon gives way to a bombastic onslaught when the chorus kicks in. It’s one of the standout live tracks from this year’s long-player, alongside ‘Lotus Eater’ that opens the three-song encore at the end of the evening.
While the recent record features prominently throughout as you would expect, it’s pleasing that they are still able to bring to life older tracks from arguably the strongest period of their career, with the brilliant two album run of ‘Primary Colours’ and ‘Skying’. Tracks from those albums make up almost half the set between them and the soaring noise of ‘Three Decades’ and ‘Still Life’ are personal highlights from those, alongside gothic, slow builder ‘Sea Within a Sea’.
There is a time and a place for a cover version, and some are more successful than others. The live arena is a graveyard of failed and ill-advised bad choices bands have made. As part of the encore tonight, they trot out a version of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes,’ and it’s done in their own way not just a like for like copy and is a brave choice. Such a song, so well-known, leaves nowhere for them to hide.
For me, it works and I can’t help but feel that Bowie himself would probably approve of tonight, a frontman who orchestrates in his own flamboyant way, a band that successfully metamorphose their sound over the years and challenged their audience to come along for the ride as they evolve, that would definitely sound pretty familiar to him career-wise.
https://www.facebook.com/manofmoonband/?locale=en_GB
https://www.facebook.com/horrorsofficial/?locale=en_GB
Photography by Grace Butterfield.
