Bat For Lashes , Ancienne Belgique , Brussels , 29/11/2012

Thirty-seven months ago, Bat For Lashes played the AB, stopping by on her Two Suns tour (you can still find the review of that show here).

2012, November 29th, dreary and chilly Thursday in Brussels, she is back to present the songs from her new - and, let's not kid ourselves, generally mediocre - third album, The Haunted Man. Just like last time (when 'Daniel' was reigning the radiowaves), the show once again sold out.

Race Horses was the opening act for the European leg of her tour; I don't know the first thing about them and got inside the venue too late to check them out. Embarassingly, after touring the whole of Europe with the same opening act, Natascha still needed a pause to conjure up their band name when she thanked them during her concert. Somehow, I don't reckon Race Horse saw a lot of Ms. Khan throughout the tour.

Onwards to the main act: The stage setup was sober and minimalistic; the only decorative element were lanterns attached to the various instruments on the stage, illuminating individually or in sync throughout several songs of the set.

Natascha emerged onto the stage, donned in what looked like the black and white dress with the generous back cleavage she wore for the 'All your gold' video. Unfortunately, she no longer tours with Charlotte Hatherley and Sarah Jones. This time around, her band consists of a female cello player, a drummer with electronic drumkit, a synth player who also does the piano on most tracks, and a guitar player. Due to electronic drumkit, I think all of the drums were played live, but like last tour, most/all of the bass parts were on tape (what Khan's objection to live bass players is exactly, we may never know).

Natascha kicked off the set with the opening track of her last album, Lilies. An emotional track, the "Thank God I'm alive"-outburst couldn't make up for the fact that the song is overly long, a flaw somewhat common among the tracks on the new album. On the upside however, Khan's voice was crystal clear, hitting all the high notes powerfully and with audible ease. A lot of directions were given to the sound engineer (this would continue on throughout the set), and standing up while simultaneously trying to sing and hit stuff with drumsticks always looks a bit silly in my book.

What's a girl to do, her breakthrough hit from 2007, still sounds fresh, mysterious and a bit eerie. Glass, the opening track from her previous album, is Bat For Lashes at her best, although I prefer the song with the parlando intro ("I will rise now / And go about the city / In the streets / Broadways I seek / Him whom my soul loveth"), which was left out. After three songs, it's already clear that Natascha really only has one dance move up her sleeve: the shoulder shake (a slo-mo shimmy?) with the occasional interpretative arm wave.

Continuing with another 'Two Suns'-track and the first appearance of Khan at her piano, Travelling woman. Not a standout track in my book. Not unlike last time, Khan sticks to the obvious and obligatory lines when addressing the audience ("Good evening Brussels!", "Is everyone feeling okay?", "Hope you're enjoying the new songs!").

Followed by three songs of the new album in succession: Oh yeah, driven by the synths and samples doesn't score points with me, All your gold is a good radio single that - for reasons unknown - isn't a radio single here in Belgium. Horses of the sun has a good bridge and chorus, but attention caves in hopelessly during the first verse, we don't reach the first bridge until about 1:15 in.

Staying put in equestrian atmospheres and with Khan back on piano, Horse and I didn't fail to shake the -appreciative, civilized and silent - crowd up a little with the up-tempo melody.

Not the biggest fan of the Laura-track (doesn't come close to the emotional range of her other piano ballads), but it works well live, and garnered the biggest round of applause of the set. I was surprised to see she left piano duties to her synthesizer player on this song.

Having worked through her full-albums in preparation for the concert, I was caught by surprise when she played Lumen, which I guess is non-album track, driven by a naive synth riff.

Another winner from 'Fur and Gold', Natascha and her band invited the audience to clap along to Prescilla. I wouldn't categorize myself as a big instrument connaisseur, but I think Natascha was playing some kind of lire on this song.

Wall with the "When you see a wall / I see a door"-chorus, is another synth-driven song of the new album that fails to really enthuse me.

Finishing off the regular part of the set with two tracks of 'Two Suns': Sleep alone with Khan on castagnettes and Pearl's dream.

The band returned for an encore: The title track from the new album 'The Haunted Man' features a sample from a men's choir. This was translated on stage with Natascha holding an vintage radio close to her microphone, out of which the sound of men's choir was played louder and louder. In itself, that was a weird and dull moment, but the finale, with Khan holding the radio with arms outstretched over her head, proclaiming "Still I´m holding out my hand / Standing by my haunted man / Yes, your ghosts have got me too / But it´s me and you / I can´t run..." was one of the better moments of the set in my opinion. Daniel was the predictable closing track of the set. But still a good song, I won't snub at it.

Overall, I was really glad to see Bat For Lashes again, and vocally and sonically, the show left little to be desired. Khan is a solid performer and tries to radiate that's she's happy to be on stage, however, she's not the extravert performer that can genuinly engage a crowd (thinking Florence Welsh here). Reading back my review from three years ago, the setlist was so much better then ('The wizard'!, 'Siren Song'!, 'Tahiti'!, 'Moon and moon'!), it's hard not to feel slightly disappointed. Interestingly enough, she played almost everything from the new album except for my two favourite songs ('Winter fields' and 'Marilyn'). Crossing my fingers that she'll come up with a fourth full album that will blow me away.

Setlist:

• Lilies
• What's a girl to do
• Glass
• Travelling woman
• Oh yeah
• All your gold
• Horses of the sun
• Horse and I
• Laura
• Lumen
• Prescilla
• Wall
• Sleep alone
• Pearl's dream

Encore:

• The Haunted Man
• Daniel

The Raveonettes 10/12/2009 @ Depot Leuven

As a big fan of the band, I couldn't let this show go by unattended, even if it was in Leuven and on a weeknight. Decided not to work the day after. I only realised the day before that the drive was going to be without gps aid, making me nervous. Had a slight traffic jam @ Zwijnaarde, nothing more after that. Missed the perifery of Brussel and Leuven at first, but quickly recovered and made it to the underground parking near the venue (max. 3 euro if you arrive after 19h) in about 2 hours, which is ok. Then strolled around for about 10 minutes to actually find the venue, the Depot is hidden in a small corner.

It was my first time at the Depot, and I gotta say, it's a pretty peculiar venue. I'm guessing this used to be a cinema or a theater, the hall where the gigs take place is very high, and 2/3 of it is filled with seats (more or less high enough to see the stage above the heads of the people standing in front of the podium). Never been to a venue where going to get a drink is this uninviting, the bar is in a really tight corridor and very cramped, and it's also where everybody goes to smoke, so bring your own booze and avoid at all cost. Weirdly enough, there wasn't a gents room to be found, so I had to make do with the ladies room. Not the best person to make crowd estimates, but I'll guess there was about 300-400 people there.
I spotted The Big Pink, The Long Blondes, and The Jesus and Mary Chain shirts, and soundtrack between bands was Florence and the Machine.

The first band, local band Willow, actually wasn't that bad. Singer's voice was like a nervous Robert Smith, there were some Reggie and Full Effect synths, and most of the songs had a kind of Bloc Party/Foals vibe.
The Raveonettes came up after 5 minutes of noise, and kicked off with my favourite song of the new record, Gone Forever. Unfortunately, the bass was drowning most of the other instruments, which got fixed more or less for the rest of the concert. Surprisingly, after this first new track, they played two tracks of their very first EP. Overall and as expected, they focused on material from the last 2 albums. Contrary to My Bloody Valentine, they proved you can be poppy and noisy at the same time, and proved they master the whole musical spectrum between those 2 opposites. Sune and Sharin both did a few tracks solo, Sune being the better singer and his renditions of 'Bowels of the beast' and 'Little Animal' definitely were among the highlights of the set. 'Heart of stone' also hit the spot and and a hypnotic 'Aly, walk with me' finished up the first and generously long part (1h) of the set before the encores. Sharin also played the drums on 2 songs.
I hope nobody got epileptic from the lighting, which was very flashy at the heavier parts of the set.

Apart from some sound issues, pretty awesome concert and well worth the drive and the money. Had passed by the merch stand a couple of times, but it was abandoned every time. Nobody else than the gorgeous (even more so post childbirth) Sharin Foo showed up after the show to sell the merch. Soooo bummed I didn't have the digicam with me. Too bad they didn't have shirts in the vein of the classy new artwork, but I bought a shirt with a raven on it. Get it? I saw people buying mugs and tote bags. Copies of the new album were sold out, only vinylheads got their fix. Only cd they brought along was Chain Gang Of Love, but she signed away the last copies of those within minutes.

Setlist:

Gone forever
Do you believe her?
Veronica Fever
Lust
Black satin
Dead sound
Bowels of the beast
Break up girls
Bang!
The beat dies
Heart of stone
Little animal
I buried you today
Love in a trashcan
Boys who rape (should all be destroyed)
Aly, walk with me

Encore:
Last dance
Attack of the ghost riders

Encore2:
That great love sound

Bat For Lashes, Ancienne Belgique, 31/10/2009

Bat For Lashes show was at the AB yesterday.

I'm not among the biggest fans of the Ancienne Belgique. As a music fan, once your favourite artist reaches an AB-sized fanbase, you're basically screwed. Ticket prices are really expensive, potato chips get fished out of your backpack (you can buy a mini-bag of chips for 'only' 2 euros in the vending machine inside), plus the club is a little too big for intimate concerts.

Luckily, however, the AB sound quality lives up to the expensive prices. To my own surprise, the Bat For Lashes show ended up selling out in the final week before the show. Bearing in mind the totally undercrowded New Found Glory in the same venue at the end of May, I guess primetime radio airplay is still invaluable to artists seeking an audience.

The opening act (Heceba or something) sounded pretty electronic, nothing too memorable.
The set had a skeleton and some spiderwebs on the microphone, but with Natascha Khan, it was hard to tell whether that was a special Halloween setup or just the standard setup. If I saw correctly, she still has the same supporting band as with the earlier tours for the latest record, with the drummer from New Young Pony Club, en Charlotte Hatherley, guitar player for Ash and solo artist. I was wondering throughout the show whether supporting Bat For Lashes is really that fun, songs center around her voice and piano playing, and some beats are programmed, so the drummer is actually sitting idle a lot, singing background vocals. Some goes for the sparse bass and regular guitar play support. I guess both either like the song material a lot, or like the economic support for their other musical endeavours.

Onto the show, Natascha came dressed in some kind of black dress with a belt, and a wolf mask on her back. Crowd was asked to howl before 'The Wizard' kicked in, no other Halloween references were made. Sonically and vocally, this was an impeccable gig. Khan in her own way is a dedicated, focused performer and even though it probably was a show on routine, I didn't really came across that way. "Glass" is always a strong opener, biggest hits "What's a girl to do" and "Daniel" were played in succession around the middle part of the set, "Trophy" and "Sleep alone" being the interchangeable songs that aid the set buildup but were the weakest moments in my book, with "Siren Song" the heartbreaking highpoint of the set, definitely one of the songs of the year in my book. The crowd was appreciative, and succeeded in shutting up most of the time. A lot of songs had drums that sounded really electronic, some kind of attempt to add just a little element of danceability to the set, but I kept wondering whether more traditional drumming would've done just as well.

Setlist:
Glass
Sleep alone
The wizard
Moon and moon
Horse and I
What's a girl to do
Daniel
Tahiti
Siren Song
Trophy
Two planets
Pearl's dream
----
The Big Sleep
Wilderness
Prescilla

Leffingeleuren

Attended the small but cosy music festival Leffingeleuren for the first time ever. Here's a shortened and abysmal translation of my Dutch facebook festival report:

Expected a lot from Blood Red Shoes, but they didn't deliver, mainly because Laura-Mary had some technical issues, so she finished the set with hardly a word to/a look at the crowd. Which is a shame because they really could've won over the youthful crowd with an energetic set, had they tried. Shame.

Alela Diane played a really good set for a lame and disinterested crowd. Ashamed of my compatriots. Mostly songs from the 'To be still' album, with Alina Harden as extra singer (they made an EP together) and a rhythm section, that was useful to drown out the conversations of the people in the back. Best voice. Here's a random (older) pic of Alela with a cat:


I was very pleasantly surprised with J Tillman. He played an interesting and unpredictable set, with long instrumental jams, and some parts where he can showcase his amazing voice.

Dinosaur Jr. had to make up for the disappointing set at the Pukkelpop festival in August. Appreciated the opener 'Thumb', and they played a lot of songs I didn't know, but overall, again they couldn't live up to my expectations. Only played the Barlow track 'Back to your heart' from Beyond (I guess the reunion tour for that record was too long), and pretty much the same tracks from the new album and "hit" singles as Pukkelpop, whereas I would've liked to hear 'I want you to know', 'Ocean in the way', 'Friends' or 'See you' from the new album. Sound was pretty bad and the singing, ...well you know.