Double Review: Deux Boules Vanille and Bell Witch

I often attend shows that I don't write a proper review about afterwards. Sometimes I'm just too lazy, sometimes I'm too busy, sometimes nothing really worth mentioning takes place and sometimes things like these happen:

May is well known for being a busy concert month, countless bands crawl out of their wintery holes and are eagerly getting back on stage again. Also more and more people finally go out again instead of spending their time indoors in front of laptop screens and books. So in just a single week actually I saw three shows that will definitely and without a doubt make my top of the year 2013 list. 

The first of them was Deux Boules Vanille at bei Ruth. I had listened to them before and had kind of instantly known that this would be good live. I had watched some youtube videos, had listened to some songs and had read some stuff online and even if I had already really liked all of that, actually seeing them live was a million times better. Big Eater were the support band that evening and after they finished, the two guys from Deux Boules Vanille started carrying shitloads of equipment out of the backstage area of bei Ruth. They built their set up in front of the stage, two drum kits facing each other and being connected to a wall of amps and cabinets behind them. Both of them had some more electronic devices gathered besides their drum kits, self built analog synthesizers and some effect pedals, it all looked fascinating and weird at the same time.

thx to Coco for the picture

Without a real soundcheck they started to play and I was instantly blown away. They triggered the synthesizers with their drums, creating melodies and harmonies accompanied by driving drum sounds. Stylistically this was a crazy ride through so many genres that at the end I was not sure whether I had just attended an electro-party or a Lightning Bolt show. They definitely referred to some early 70s electronica in the vein of Silver Apples, then switched to frantic grind-core influenced parts just to end with something that was so rhythmic and pulsating that it somehow sounded rather technoid. Their whole set was a highly energetic and highly entertaining outburst of joy and the unfortunately rather small audience went kind of crazy. I really truly hope these guys will be back some time soon, this was an awful lot of fun.

Review: Mount Eerie + Mountains

Okay, so I was looking forward to seeing Mount Eerie since this date was announced some while ago. I had actually never seen them/him live and I have to say it was about time.

Mountains started to play to a sparsely filled Festsaal Kreuzberg but during their set, more and more people showed up. I didn't know them before this show and when I saw their set up, which consisted of two analog synthesizer rack piles and two guitars, I was becoming curious. They played a quite versatile set that changed from an ambient drone beginning with looped layers of synth sounds and drifted to a more guitar oriented part that sounded very post-rock influenced, just to break that up again into cut up beats of sounds and melody pieces. I really enjoyed their set and I was of the impression that a large part of the audience did as well. Also mood wise, they prepared quite nicely for the upcoming second mountain band which everyone was eagerly awaiting.

So although I had never seen Mount Eerie live before, I knew that their live shows are nearly always totally different experiences. Phil Elverum, the main and also only constant member of Mount Eerie started the band in 2004 when he wanted to make a conceptual change from his former band the Microphones, whose last record was actually called Mount Eerie. Since then, he collaborated with quite a few musicians - for the current live set up he invited Genevieve Castrée of O Paon, Julia Chirka who also plays in No Kids and Ashley Eriksson of the band LAKE to join him. They had a rather minimalistic set up of two basses, one 12-string guitar and a drum pad and cymbal and were announced to be "touring as a singing band", which sort of describes quite nicely what they did.

Basically they played Mount Eerie songs supported by distorted bass and minimalistic electronic drums with a female choir of three. And for me their live show worked very well. What I love about Mount Eerie is that behind their frequent noisy outbursts, there's always that fragile and melancholic song hidden (if it is hidden at all). The loud and distorted parts of their set merged beautifully with Phil Elverum's soft and distinctive voice and the support of the harmonics of a three voice choir also worked really well. They all seemed a bit nervous or shy on stage and I have to say that this fact only added up to me finding them even more likeable. They did not present a perfectly polished set of bland music but a characterful rendition of beautiful songs. Also their awkwardly funny announcements and talks between songs were totally loveable.

After their set, Phil came back to play an encore just by himself and after this version of Through The Trees pt. 2 from the Clear Moon record, I was finally convinced that this evening will most likely show up on my top of the year list later on for obvious reasons... "and it's hard to describe / without seeming absurd"...

cooking with Earth

We are extremely excited about the Earth / Mount Eerie gig on Saturday, have bought our tickets and everything. Yay.

In the meantime, we shall be cooking with nettles, as suggested by Earth bass player, and Mount Eerie collaborateur, Karl Blau:

In The Mix With Karl Blau article