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Live Reviews Music

Japanese Breakfast goes deep at Roundhouse

Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner likes to describe her festival shows as dating, where she shows off the best, brightest side of herself. Headline shows are more like long-term relationships; more time with the audience means she can reveal more parts of her personality. At Roundhouse tonight she’s practically ready to move in together.

Which isn’t to say that her festival shows are one-dimensional — she’s mastered the art of burying personal trauma inside even her bounciest melodies. But over the space of 75 minutes, Zauner digs so deep into her catalogue that we even get three minutes of ethereal beauty from her soundtrack to the video game Sable. And she opens the encore with a song so new it’s never been played in public before.

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Live Reviews Music

Muse are bigger than ever at Milton Keynes Bowl

Muse have never been big on subtlety. Right from the opening track of their debut album — piano bombast, intergalactic guitar solo, that falsetto — they’ve clearly believed more is more. The same goes for their live shows. Since reaching venues massive enough to contain their songs, the trio have at various times treated audiences to: trapeze artists suspended from balloons, a three-metre tall robot patrolling the stage, 16 autonomous inflatable drones circling above, and a huge skeletal android (think Iron Maiden’s Eddie, but much, much bigger).

In short, Muse are the perfect band to fill a place as massive as Milton Keynes Bowl, a natural amphitheatre that holds 65,000 people. And they’ve brought their newest toys (and songs) along for the occasion.

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Live Reviews Music

The Mars Volta embrace the mysterious

The Mars Volta have always embraced the mysterious — from the oblique lyrics and impenetrable song titles (Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt, Miranda That Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore) to the Storm Thorgerson cover art of their first few albums. (A gold head on a plate beaming light from its mouth, anyone? How about someone in a suit driving a classic car — with a red velvet bag covering their head?)

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Live Reviews Music

Sigur Rós are full of surprises

It’s a big day for Sigur Rós. This morning they surprise-released Átta, their first album in a decade. This evening they begin an ambitious tour that sees them perform new tracks, rejuvenate familiar favourites, and resurrect rarely heard classics — with the help of a 41-piece orchestra.

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Live Reviews Music

Bat For Lashes takes big risks

Natasha Khan loves a concept. One of Bat For Lashes’ albums documents the inner journey of a woman who honeymoons alone after her fiancé’s killed in a crash on the way to their wedding. The most recent — inspired by Los Angeles and ’80s culture (in particular teen vampire film The Lost Boys) — has a character named Nikki Pink investigating a mysterious biker gang, the Lost Girls.

The same attention to detail goes into her live shows. In an interview filmed during rehearsals for her Meltdown performance, Khan speaks about embodiment, genuine connection and community, energy exchange, using dance to tell stories, introducing the new persona of the Mother Witch, the importance of growing and constantly trying to push herself, and the next Bat For Lashes album (inspired by becoming a parent).

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Live Reviews Music

Warpaint are a joy at Meltdown

New Song is so much more than the pulsing disco anthem that gets the entire Royal Festival Hall audience out of their seats. The track, which compares the beginning of a relationship with the rush of writing (or hearing) a new song, can easily be seen as a reflection on Warpaint’s career. Over the course of four stunning albums and almost 20 years, the Los Angeles quartet have always been enraptured by the new, constantly redefining their sound from one LP to the next.

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Live Reviews Music

Far From Saints are transcendent at EartH

Far From Saints

Kelly Jones clearly remembers the first time he saw Patty Lynn sing. It was about 10 years ago. Stereophonics are touring the US with their album Graffiti On The Train. The Wind and The Wave (Lynn and Dwight Baker), are the support act. Jones watches them from the side of the stage.

“There are lots of people that can sing. There are lots of people who can hit those high notes, all that bullshit on the telly. But there aren’t many people who can move you when they sing, and I was moved by Patty’s voice,” Jones says from the stage at EartH in Hackney.

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Live Reviews Music

The Wedding Present can’t slow down

As The Wedding Present jangle their way into I Am Not Going To Fall In Love With You, the moshing and crowd surfing kick off again. Nothing surprising there. The front rows at Shepherd’s Bush Empire have barely stood still since the first notes of set opener Interstate 5. And one particularly tenacious punter’s been airborne, much to David Gedge’s amusement, most of the time since Brassneck. That was at least 45 minutes ago.

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Live Reviews Music

Alison Goldfrapp makes a fresh start

Alison Goldfrapp’s The Love Invention is stuffed with chic electro dance anthems. So it makes perfect sense for her first solo album to make its live debut at HERE.

Part of London’s new Outernet development, it’s a high-tech venue four floors beneath those massive audio-visual “immersive experiences” that have popped up outside Tottenham Court Road tube station. The sound system is astonishing. A huge high-definition video screen covers the entire wall behind the stage. The bar is more like something out of a Mayfair hotel than the usual £7-Carlsberg-pints-or-bust situation at most live music venues. The floors aren’t even sticky. Essentially, it’s the kind of place where you could imagine 2000 sweaty bodies writhing on a Friday night while a DJ spins high-energy bangers from that booth one storey above the dance floor.

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Live Reviews Music

Wunderhorse are leaders of the pack

Wunderhorse are on the up and up. In the past six months alone they’ve supported Fontaines D.C. on US and UK tours, released their debut album (Cub), and joined Pixies on a 16-date European jaunt.

They’re now on a national headline tour that’s almost entirely sold out. And all over the 1500-capacity Electric Ballroom are posters advertising their upcoming November show at O2 Forum Kentish Town, a venue that packs in almost 1000 more people than tonight.

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