Yeah Yeah Yeahs - HMV Ritz, Wednesday
1st May, 19.00, £24.00- £30.00
It all
started with their single, ‘Maps’. I was fifteen, and I’d just seen the video
for it for the very first time. I was transfixed. It was so much more direct
than just about any video I’d ever seen previously. So intimate. Karen O stripping
her soul bare, in a large studio, with thirty or so people looking on, but
doing so in such a quiet, graceful way. It was genuinely affecting.
I remember
shuffling into school the next day and one of my friends, Joe, had also seen
the video that night. He too had been captivated by it; to such an extent that
he refused to help his mum bring the shopping in until the video had finished.
That’s the kind of hushed power that Karen O can communicate.
‘Can’ being
the operative verb. The highly sexualised ‘Date with the Night’, from the debut
album which also sported ‘Maps’, is anything but quiet; O’s “choke choke choke
choke choke” refrain and insertion of the microphone into her mouth during live
performances fairly self-explanatory. Guitarist Nick Zinner’s lusty, mounting
riff complements the theme perfectly. All of this completes the portrait of a frontwoman
who, in its truest sense, embodies the quiet / loud stage persona.
In Yeah Yeah
Yeah’s case, there was no “difficult” second album. Show Your Bones retained the superb quality of their debut but
toned things down emotionally somewhat. O sounds like a female Lou Reed on the
strutting, warping, ‘Cheated Hearts’ and ‘Gold Lion’ is evocative of the Pixies’
fractured, brilliant weirdness. The New Yorkers later moved into more
dance-orientated territory on fifth album It’s
Blitz, with the excellent Goldfrapp-tinged “Zero” and the exultant “Heads
Will Roll”, which bursts with punch and potency.
Latest
release Mosquito hasn’t been so
highly acclaimed as the band’s previous efforts, and though the likes of latest
single “Sacrilege” doesn’t quite reach the dizzy heights of former times, Yeah
Yeah Yeahs have got a tremendous body of work to draw from for live
performances and O’s showwomanship is always infatuating.
'Maps' video:
'Zero' Live:
Killswitch Engage – HMV Ritz,
Thursday 2nd May, 19.00, £18.50 - £27.50
I’m as guilty as many, many others in that my introduction
to Killswitch Engage was through arguably their most famous track, ‘My Last
Serenade’. I recall that opening thumping, lurching riff shredding my
consciousness, such was my unfamiliarity with the metal scene. And then came the soaring, opulent chorus; suddenly
shards of piercing melody slanted through the rumbling, snarling underbelly. I
realised that this was a metal outfit who married a thrash and metalcore
template with much softer, harmonious phases.
Killswitch have undergone a fairly significant line-up
change of late, with original vocalist Jesse Leach returning after an eleven
year absence from the band in place of long-time frontman, Howard Jones. Fans
seem to be completely divided as to who the stronger of the two is, but few
would contest that they’re both fantastic metal singers live.
Having researched their recent set lists, I can almost
guarantee that they’ll perform tracks from their earlier albums such as the
stately, empowering ‘Fixation on the Darkness’ (my personal favourite), the
thundering ‘A Bid Farewell’, through to the likes of ‘This is Absolution’ and ‘The
New Awakening’, the latter from the band’s well-received latest album, Disarm the Descent.
Admittedly, I doubt I would enjoy Killswitch particularly if
it weren’t for the beauty in their more melodic passages, but all elements
considered, their music really is striking and impactful. If you have any
rooted interest in metal, their musicianship will almost certainly leave its
mark and if it doesn’t, then guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz’s cape and tiny, denim,
altogether-disturbing shorts definitely will. Not to mention his unorthodox
stage antics (charging over to the drummer and stopping his cymbal from vibrating,
anyone?) Terrific guitarist though!
'My Last Serenade' Live:
'This is Absolution' Live:
Seasick Steve – HMV Ritz, Saturday 4th
May, 18.30, £26.00-£40.00
Seasick Steve
is the only popular musician that I know of to have lived as a hobo, tramp,
and bum. He explains, “Hobos are people who move around looking for work,
tramps are people who move around but don’t look for work, and bums are people
who don’t move and don’t work. I’ve been all three.” Such a back-story informs
his sprightly, spirited country-blues to a huge degree. On the sensational ‘Dog
House’, his raspy, warm voice imparts, “I left home at fourteen years of age. I
figured I could do it better on my own”, before elaborating on a hand to mouth
existence, all set against this stunningly forceful, unrelenting guitar line
(make that a three string guitar). “We gonna get down on a little three-string
transboogie”, he intones, on a spectacular performance of the track on Jools
Holland.
‘Cut My Wings’,
another track from Steve’s Dog House Music album, is every bit as
compelling. It’s fraught with tension and a yearning for liberty, Steve’s vocal
defiant in the face of being held down, “Captain, how long must I stand your evil
ways. I’m gonna get ya, I’m gonna get ya, I’m gonna get ya, I’m gonna get ya”, with
his resolve gathering more and more strength as the song proceeds. The track
culminates in a series of manic slides up and down the neck of his guitar,
Steve’s head rocking back and forth, and sometimes the raise of an arm as he
interacts with his demons physically on stage. He provides his own percussion
in the form of a wooden box, otherwise known as “The Mississippi Drum Machine”,
which he taps with his foot repeatedly, only serving to add to his
breathtakingly vigourous presentation.
The man truly
is one of a kind. He’s majestic. You would be a fool to miss out, and I speak
for myself here too.
'Dog House' Live:
'Cut My Wings' Live:
