M83 - Mandela Hall, Belfast
Mandela Hall, Belfast
Tuesday 26th June
Rarely has a support band been as appropriate as tonight's warm up Man Without Country. The Welsh (See they do have a country, the liars) three piece have been slogging it out on tour with M83 and ATL can only think that they have been poaching hundreds of fans along the way. Everything is meticulous, from their light show, to the arpeggio scattered teeth rattling backing tracks and most notably the deafeningly loud sound. Hey, Man Without Country, My Bloody Valentine called and they want their decibels back.
Musically they have the transcendent embrace of shoegaze in the eerie vocal and synth. The suffocating smoothness gives us some major heebie jeebies. On the percussion front, their drummer is hellbent on inducing tinnitus on the 800 strong crowd with every industrial plant of his drum stick. Whoever put this band on tour with M83 needs a gargantuan gold trophy and award for excellence in the field of 'appropriateness'.
M83 return to the Mandela Hall, going on four years since their last performance in Belfast (In the Speakeasy, Queens Union not Mandela Hall as they proclaimed, not to be pedantic) and this time they come in a haze of justified hype and success. Their latest album 'Hurry Up, We're Dreaming' slingshotted the French act from hipster water cooler whispers to proper full on commercial success. You know you've made it when a certain brand with a flying bull is flaunting the fruits of your labour for extra cool points.
ATL have had the good luck to catch the M83 three times in the last few months and have been frothing at the gob to see how tonight's local crowd greet a band in full flow. Their setlist, as on the aforementioned live shows, is pretty much identical. Most would guffaw at the lack of spontaneity and imagination but not us, this set is tailored this way for a reason. The ebb and flow of the tracks is calculated to perfection. It runs so well it feels like we are less at a gig and more at a theatrical performance, with a certain sense of narrative running throughout. Someone should buy the film rights to this story.
The highlight of the night is most definitely the improv sax solo on Midnight City. It's so much more prominent and unpredictable than that of the recorded track and the saxophonist playing it looks like he has been entranced by some kind of strange voodoo.
Our only gripe on another wise flawless night would be the energy of the crowd. They are reverent but subdued, attentive and blue eyed but lacking that spark or catalyst to transcend the gig into VIP Mandella Hall folklore. 'Midnight City' and set closer 'Couleurs' create a decent little fray but one that wouldn't register on any gigter scale (Gigter Scale is a new invention ATL made up there now). It's a shame the crowd didn't give it back as much as they got it because it had the potential to be a 'I was there' gig, instead of great band turns up/plays/everyone goes home happy and i guess theres not too much wrong with that either. Great gig M8(3)!
Philip Taggart
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