Well, that was pretty special. In a week consisting of long-awaited gigs by TVOTR and Sigur Ros, I often found myself forgetting about this intimate show at London’s lovely St. Giles church but in the event it proved itself to be more than a match for those heavy-hitters.
Despite what I’d been led to believe, Woodpigeon weren’t actually supporting but the organisers compensated for their absence by selecting a roster of similarly high-calibre folksters to tide us by. I only caught the last song by Brighton’s macabre Bird Engine, but his striking voice had carried to the front lobby and had immediately piqued my interest- shame I didn’t see more. Texan Greg Weeks and his all-female band were pretty decent too, their folk-pop buoyed by some stunning harmonies and it was once again a pleasure to witness the excellent Absentee in action. His grizzled, subterranean vocals rumbled arrestingly through their delicate, harmonic folk, rendered in a more acoustic vein than on previous occasions and much better for it.
But then came forth Shearwater, who proceeded to blow all that had come before out of the fucking water. On The Death of The Waters was exactly what an opener should be- an awe-inspiring statement of intent that leaves no doubt in your mind that this band means BUSINESS. When halfway through the fragile piano balladry suddenly erupts into a massive, cacophonous blast of sound- huge, fuzzy guitar chords, trumpets, Jon Meiburg pounding the vintage ivories like a man possessed- I was almost knocked off my pew (which, incidentally, wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as you wusses were making out) by the sheer force of it. And thus a benchmark was set that the band consistently matched- occasionally the melodies were slighter than the arrangements that supported them but for the most part they constantly and continuously impressed. Meiburg’s fey falsetto, reminiscent of Anthony Hegarty’s can become somewhat trying on record, but it’s flawless live, a perfect match for the acoustic brilliance of the venue, the intricacies of their songwriting and the incredible variety of the instrumentation on offer. Not content with restricting themselves to cellos, pianos, trumpets, drums, glockenspiels, acoustic and electric guitars, clarinets and melodicas, chandelier-swinging Norse deity THOR adds a couple of toys of his own devising to the mix. One is a self-made string instrument hewn a rough piece of wood, the other an eerie, ethereal sounding device called the ‘waterphone’.
As imparted to CB, John and myself after the show by THOR himself, the waterphone was invented by a man called Richard Waters in California back in the 70’s and uses water to bend the pitch, creating an effect not too dissimilar to Sigur Ros’ e-bowing technique, except sharper and more metallic. The actual instrument used by THOR was actually made by him and his welder housemate, which I thought was pretty cool.
And to cap it all off, they even made me enjoy the work of Clinic with a stunning cover of “Tomorrow”- a minor miracle, all things considered! A brilliant performance that with any justice should see Shearwater start to shake off the ‘Okkervil River side-project’ tag and establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in their own right- because on the evidence here, they might well be the superior band.
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