KATATONIA, SWALLOW THE SUN & LONG DISTANCE CALLING –
LONDON GARAGE 11/03/10
A big queue outside the doors here in chilly Highbury tonight and even though the headliners had played here a few times recently it was obvious that they had no problems selling out the venue. It was odd being back here in the main Garage after all these years and it was pretty much the same but different! The roof for a start was much higher and arched even if the venue itself seemed no bigger in essence. One thing that was more than noticeable as soon as first band Long Distance Calling came on was that the new PA system packed one hell of a powerful punch especially for those of us being battered by it in the photo pit. As for the unknown by me band from Germany it was evident that they were a perfect opener for the two much better known acts after them. We were flung into what can only be described as post rock territories with powerful riffs and nice heavy bass rattling us around. One guy on an Apple PC seemed to be responsible for a lot of what was going on in the background and by second song I realised that the microphone stage front was a bit of a misnomer. There were no vocals from a singer as such although there were some sampled voices coming out the ether. There were moments of space rock, shoe gazing and all of that but they were few and far between as the band seemed most at home simply going for it. You can name the normal bands here if you like but I was reminded a bit of Kong as well as Capricorns and some of the more gazing elements had guitars doing a Nephilim shimmer. For 30 minutes the band proved great entertainment.
No Laura Palmer intro from Swallow The Sun, in fact although I slightly recognised what they came onto I couldn’t place it. Both singers from STS and Katatonia proved a nightmare tonight from a visual point even if they were fantastic in an audio sense. Cheers for all the great photos I got of either your hat or your elbows Mikko! Luckily the music was great and the woods were evil, the venue was rammed and there was very little space to stand anywhere. Moments of sublime and fragile mellow beauty weaved out the speakers and suddenly were torn asunder by huge roars and frantic pummelling instrumentation. As the fluttering wings of ‘Plague Of Butterflies’ were unleashed the band were in their element, powerful, complex and completely mesmerising. The fact that they were only supporting spoke a huge amount as far as the headliners were concerned but with hindsight I would not like to say that Katatonia proved the better band of the night, they were certainly equally matched here. Despite the amount of times I have seen STS in the last year or so they never bore live. The set if anything was over too quickly as the ‘New Moon’ set but it was a chilling and fantastical, atmospherically charged one make no mistake.
So I had missed the last couple of Katatonia shows and in fact can’t remember when I last caught them. The new album had not blown me away like others which was a bit of a surprise as I had expected it to. A glimpse at the set-list showed we were getting no less than in the region of 20 numbers which was a case of ‘wow,’ we were certainly going to be miserably serenaded here tonight. A spin of ‘Night Is the New Day’ prior to the show had proved it was growing on me and the opening salvo of ‘Forsaker’ and ‘Liberation’ did nothing to change my mind. They were powerful and rippled through the audience getting people moving around in what little space they had. The set was made up of the newer albums but had quite a few surprises as we went on. Although I had to wonder how many people in the audience even knew ‘Brave Murder Day’ I chastised myself and thankfully decided to enjoy what we were getting here tonight and stop reminiscing about the past.
There were many highlights to the set; the likes of ‘Complicity’ nestled nicely next to the band’s new single ‘The Longest Day.’ A favourite of mine ‘Teargas’ had everyone singing along loudly on the chorus (I wish they had played ‘My Sweet Nurse’ too but you can’t have everything). Slight confusion when the tour bass player was announced as Niklas Sandin until I realised that it was not actually the guitarist with a very similar name from Dark Tranquillity and he did a great job too. Jonas kept announcing that they were playing songs that they had either rarely or never played before. I had to wonder if he wowed the crowd with these words on a nightly basis but perhaps we were being treated to something a little special tonight and whatever the occasion I was happy to lose myself and sink under to ‘Saw You Drown.’ As ‘Ghost Of The Sun’ later haunted us and I witnessed people dancing away with big gleeful expressions on their faces the thought that, never had so many, seemed so cheerful enjoying something so miserable came into my head. The songs kept coming thick and fast and it had to eventually end but when it did I doubt anyone was complaining. The masters of melancholy certainly did not disappoint tonight.
Pete Woods
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