I hope that by this point we have already established and everyone has understood the objectional fact that Guillemots are one of the greatest things to grace the musical world ever. Right? Right. Good.

Now, a confession: I’m not really a huge fan of live music. I know I know, I’m a music fan and therefore should spend my spare time checking out awesome bands in live environment where “the music’s real greatness is measured”. Sod that crap. I mean, I enjoy a good live DVD as much as anyone and spend time occasionally watching live clips of songs that I love but the thing is, I can do that on my own, from the comfort of my home. I don’t have to go to insanely crowded room where I can’t move, full of idiots who either get in front of me, push me, almost spill their ridiculously full beer mugs on me (why the hell do you even try to juggle those into the very crowded areas? Seriously), I don’t have to stand for ages while suffering from poor sound quality because I didn’t pick some magical spot while desperately attempting to see the band. Instead, I get to sit on my bed or chair and listen to an awesome live recording with a good sound quality and video quality. Plus I’m more into studio work in general, it’s impossible to have those amazing musical details and thick atmospheres in live setting.

That said, last night I went and checked out Guillemots because they’re just so awesome.

Guillemots are at the moment on their Fishbone for a Drink tour which is all about doing stuff a bit different. The venues are intriguing and smaller, the setlists have quite a fair amount of rare things involved, and even the warm-up was different. Instead of having some utter crap band of amateurs acting as a warm-up, the audience was treated with a collection of short films which were then improv-soundtracked by the band live. According to the announcer, the band had seen each film only once or twice and thus the results could be quite intriguing. They certainly were. The music went from tense to plain silly, the band was having a riot and there were some musical bits that downright deserve to be fully fleshed into proper Guillemots songs. Particularly that atmospheric piano moment…

After another soundcheck, the concert began. The evening’s special treatment in the setlist was immediately shown as the opening song of the concert was the beautiful Fyfe & piano moment “My Chosen One”, a b-side from the very first release of the Trains to Brazil single (as well as available in the From the Cliffs compilation EP). The band’s b-sides were visited afterwards as well as the fantastic “Throw Me a Sun” and bluesy “What We Have” from the Get Over It single were played, the former as a far more rocking version than the atmospheric, airy pop of the studio version. I always do love bands who aren’t afraid to look into their b-sides for live material, they’re worthy material as well as anything.

Made-Up Lovesong #43 (Radio One’s Big Weekend)

The rocking interpretation of Throw Me a Sun is a good example of the gig’s musical nature in general. For both this tour and the promo tour surrounding the band’s latest album Red (which is superfantastic and anyone who says otherwise is a wonkyhead) the band has played as a four-piece instead of carrying around a bunch of helping musicians as they’ve done in the past. Minimising the amount of instruments used causes the band’s lush, detailed sound to turn into a more straightforward one, sometimes working fantastically (the live version of “Get Over It” is beautifully frantic) and sometimes not (we’ll come to this later).

There were several excellent highlights in the setlist. “Trains to Brazil” got everyone jumping, clapping and singing along, as did Get Over It. “Kriss Kross” turns into an aggressive monster with a killer drive when performed on stage. The Red standout “Don’t Look Down” in particular takes a grand form in live environment – the additional guitar in the first half of the song sounds glorious and should be on the album as well, and as the song suddenly switches gears from a calm, bass-driven mood piece into an epic rockout, the live version turns into a grand wall of pure noise that still manages to sound awesome. But the moment that has surely imprinted into everyone’s memory the most is the version of “Standing on the Last Star” played. Instead of sticking to the original breezy and bittersweet electro-pop or the more rocking version performed live in the previous tour, this gig (and most likely the whole tour) saw Fyfe taking the song by solo. It was his voice and a heartachingly fragile acoustic guitar picking that made the whole room go quiet. Last Star has always been a rather melancholy song but the album version’s bright output turns it almost uplifting – this reimagining however embraced the song’s sad heart and at the same time, conquered everyone’s heart. The whole entourage I went to the gig with (a friend of mine as well as his mother and her boyfriend) agreed that this rendition deserves to be released as a b-side or something.

Not all was too good though. First of all, all the complaints concerning the live setting that I ranted about early on this article apply for this gig as well. Specifically however, some songs felt to be somewhat let down. “We’re Here” and “São Paulo” are absolutely gorgeous songs on album (after all, Through the Windowpane is one of the greatest albums ever made) but they lose a lot on the live setting. Part of the reason why they are so fantastic are their lush production, the absolutely gorgeous string arrangements that truly make the songs soar sky high. As a four-piece, this was lacking and both songs ended up sounding limp.

The most exciting moments of the gig belonged to the two new songs performed, “Alaska” and the encore song whose name wasn’t mentioned (I’d guess something along the lines of “Where Is the Sun” considering how much that phrase was repeated). They certainly promise interesting things for the band’s future, and yet more disappointing news for those fans who simply want more of Windowpane and less of different material. Both songs were really rocking and had a rather dark, almost aggressive twist to them. Alaska sounded like a Guillemots covering something out of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ One Hot Minute (a terribly underrated album), a sort of darker and groovier Kriss Kross. The crashy and wild ‘Where is the Sun’ on the other hand is a sure future live fan favourite. Of course, one shouldn’t really make any wild guesses based on these two tracks, knowing the band’s more energetic and rocking twists to their live songs – just compare the live and studio version of Get Over It and you know what I mean.

I must say, I love the band’s stage presence. Fyfe is a shy, bumbling git who messes up song starts, sips off his red wine bottle whenever he has time and leads his stage speeches into weird off tangets which he then embarrasedly snaps off as he realises he has no idea what he’s talking about anymore. Arista alternates between standing with her double bass eyes closed and completely emerging herself into the music, and an energetic rock girl who constantly converses with the invisible stage hands about god knows what. Magrao is cool as fuck as always – he may not move or say much but his guitar magic is wonderful to watch, plus the man is the most badass guy ever when he gets behind the bass guitar. And whilst Stewart is already one of my favourite drummers thanks to his studio contributions, he proves he deserves to be on that imaginary list with his stage presence, often coming across as like Animal from The Muppets having come to life, maniacally bashing his drums and rocking out whenever he can. The whole band is simply mesmerising to watch.

Don’t Look Down (live at Lancaster Library)

Overall, I’m still not a live convert. I still prefer enjoying my bands with my headphones and their albums and as much as I enjoyed the gig, the same applies to Guillemots. I greatly enjoyed my time but I’m not exactly yearning for constant live material. It’s the albums where the merits of an artist are shown, the live appearances are a bonus. Even still, Guillemots are one damn good live band.

And yaaaay, I got myself a t-shirt and a physical copy of Of the Night EP.

Setlist

1.My Chosen One
2.Kriss Kross
3.Alaska
4.Through the Windowpane
5.If the World Ends
6.Made-Up Lovesong #43
7.Throw Me a Sun
8.We’re Here
9.What We Have
10.Standing on the Last Star (Fyfe solo with acoustic guitar)
11.Don’t Look Down
12.Get Over It
13.Trains to Brazil
14.São Paulo
——————————
15.”Where Is the Sun” (?????)

Also, thanks and kudos to my great friend who enjoyed the gig with me. Without him and his super-phone you wouldn’t have the setlist written here.

Tags: Guillemots

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 5:17 pm and is filed under Live. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.