Last night I set off all dressed up in glorious anticipation of a Monday night feast of Yeasayer followed by Bat For Lashes at the Roundhouse in Camden. I went expecting to be treated to uplifting folky, bells and whistles-filled renditions of Sunrise, Wait For the Summer and the heavenly Tightrope and instead found myself in the middle of some kind of 'World Dance' rave. Perhaps it was because I went in expecting something so totally different (or maybe because Ira has cut all his hair off *Sob*) but I was surprised to find myself not that impressed. I thought the heavy dance beats made them sound a bit generic, detracted from the normally soul-soaring harmonies and didn't give them much room for the usual tweaks and surprises. Or maybe everything was in there but I couldn't hear them over the booming kick drum. Even the versions of the old songs sounded rushed and tame against the new clubland beat.
Not so Bat For Lashes - Khan played a blinder. Gold cape: check, moon and desert imagery: check, soul-filled-clear-as-a-bell voice: check. There was even a wind machine! Not many 'credible' posters could get away with that, genius. Siren Song almost had me in tears, Daniel turned out to be a shameless moment of singalong joy and What's A Girl To Do was cheered to the rafters - that's how you dance-up an original.
I don't know if it was simply because she played to the crowd with a show of well known tunes and Yeasyer were bravely touting new wares but BFL really put Yeasayer in the shade last night. I don't want to be one of these people who gets angry at change but in terms of Yeasayer's new tracks I wasn't happy. BUT having said that Yeasayer are pretty darn awesome so I’m going to give them a few more listens with a more open mind before bringing the guillotine down…
No comments:
Post a Comment