ULVER & MOTHLITE
LONDON QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL 09/10/09
This made a nice change, rather than walking down Camden High Street and running the gamut of dealers, tourists, nutters and assorted Goths I had a nice stroll across the Golden Jubilee Bridge to the venue. Big Ben could be seen to my right and in front of me a glowing London Eye and boats chugging along below. Of course it was raining but I had a couple of cans of beer and was right in the mood for a night of musical entertainment. Entering the venue there was a jazz band in the lobby, nice!
Taking our seats (yes this was grown up sit down stuff) in time for support band Mothlite I was amazed by how crammed with various equipment the large stage was. I felt like I was in the middle of a futuristic Dr Who set for some reason from my seat K9 and was glad I had brought glasses so I could see what was going on a bit better. Then the music started and it all went a bit downhill. Now, I do not like moths, I have a bit of a phobia and they give me the heebie-jeebies I admit. I was also kind of weirded out when dad with three young kids came and sat in the row in front, how odd. The moths filtered on stage and were bathed in red light to flitter around in. There was a saxophonist playing moody and soulfully on stage and it was instantly evident why these Londoners were supporting, as they sounded a bit Ulver lite if anything. But it quickly struck that this was sophisticated cocktail muzak designed for people sitting around and eating expensive nibbles and going “Yah, yah, yah” at each other. It was mellow, hell there was even a xylophone on stage and the male vocals were weedy and lacking in any emotion and the female ones were simply designed for a brief spot of light dressing and utilised far too sparsely.
I sat there trying to work out just which David Lynch movie I had walked into but decided that it was actually none as I quite like Lynch and this was just purely musical pretension. The novelty wore off very quickly and I found myself laughing at the three kids beating time to a sudden drum flourish with empty plastic water bottles, wondering what the hell their dad was putting them through here (I reckon they probably had begged him to take them to Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs but he was obviously a bit of a wanker). I wanted to crush these moths and even a brief appearance from the Ulver front-man was not going to save them. I wondered why Mothlites singer needed two microphones too but frankly as soon as they announced the last song, left and legged it for a much needed pint. To quote a friends Facebook status when I got home, “Mothlite, Mothballs more like”
So Ulver, the Norwegians who formed in 1993 and until a few months ago a band who had never played live. I use the term band loosely as that is not exactly what we got tonight but a couple of drummers, guitarist and occasional theramin player and loads of guys with laptops jigging around like they were at an Orbital gig (no scrap that, at least Orbital put on an impressive show). Honestly I at first thought this must have been sponsored by Apple. Obviously we were well aware that nothing from the early Ulver albums was going to be played here. No that chance had been missed, none of the lovely folk music or raw black metal from their best trio or early albums that’s for sure, this was to be electronic Ulver. Still that should not be too bad they have made some amazing albums since then, haven’t they?
They came on to gleaming columns of blue light and a projector showing black and white films in sort of time to the music. The first of these visual accompaniments was instantly recognised as Leni Riefenstahl's ‘Olympia’ which had me thinking that this was very clichéd and the likes of Laibach had been doing these sorts of theatrics for years. Well musically I did not let this (ahem) quick fix of melancholy affect me and settled down to see what was going on, on the stage. The group were basically arranged in a semicircle with Trickster G, Kristoffer Rygg, Garm or whatever name you want to give him lurking to the side rather than at the front. Once he unleashed the vocals I sat there scratching my head, whilst the instrumentation was pretty powerful they were somehow distorted in the venue and came out almost cavernous and hollow. The likes of ‘Rock Massif’ was booming and drum laden and did not come across like it did on album really at all and this was the main problem I had here. Also the theramin pieces courtesy of Pamelia Kurstin one of which was ‘Silence Teaches You How To Sing’ hardly a ‘live piece’ anyway, went on forever and were totally boring if truth be told.
The highlights of the night came from ‘Perdition City’ an album that in my opinion is one of the best releases of the last decade. Still the likes of ‘Porn Pieces Or The Scars Of Cold Kisses’ are the sounds that I would never chose to share with an audience and for that reason found them rather odd in the live setting. Also I realised that I was rocking out to the more dynamic parts here but looking around saw that everyone else was basically motionless. The strobe overload and lighting here was great and this was the definite highlight making the song that I eventually realised was from ‘William Blake’ (poss Plates 16-17’) afterwards pretty much a misfire.
Still it wasn’t all terrible the surprise tonight being ‘In The Red’ a song from an album that was never a huge favourite ‘Blood Inside’ but with the schizophrenic verve of the on-stage delivery was fantastic. My notes got jumbled and I know there was a bit of ‘Shadows Of The Sun’ played at some stage, you could tell by the pitched up in Africa screen visuals and this too sounded far more dynamic than on album (well I guess it couldn’t have been less so). At the end there was a huge yawning theramin piece that numbed me into catatonia and to add insult to injury, despite the audience expecting more that was it, after 80 minutes or so. I have to admit being hugely disappointed not to get the main theme or anything off of Lykantropen and wondered if the huge adulation garnered on the bowing players was actually deserved.
So I am in two minds here. Ulver were one of the few remaining bands that I had never seen and absolutely had to, but then again perhaps the intrigue I had with them never playing would have been better served, the mystery sweeter than the actual event. I am not exactly glad that I did see them and certainly would not rush to do so again if they play in the future. I am sure there is a moral in this somewhere too but I can only look back with a bit of a sour taste of disappointment after this show.
Pete Woods
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