“It was all over in little more than an hour and I was rendered deaf in one ear.”
“It was all over in little more than an hour and I was rendered deaf in one ear.“
We arrive late and the Paradiso is jam packed – as packed as it gets really, and for once we can’t get anywhere near the front, spending the whole concert peering between heads to see what going on and being blasted from the close proximity of the speakers. No problems with the bass, boys, as my still ringing ears will attest to!
The set is minimalist in black with white stripes, and the majority of the band obviously go to the same stylist as they are all uniformly dressed in the style of The Hives or the International Noise Conspiracy and sport Small Faces hair styles, except of course for the vocalist Hugh Cornwall (no, not actually Hugh Cornwall – but a younger and slightly less sleazy looking version of the Stranglers front man).
The line-up seems to be going through a bit of a transition at the moment, so if any fans are reading this, I beg forgiveness if I have it wrong. Present of course are the Dawaele brothers Stephen & David – sons of the influential Belgian radio personality Zaki and of ‘Too Many Dj’s’ fame for which Soulwax are largely known. They’re accompanied by bassist Stephen van Leuven, Steve Slingmeyer on drums (a whole lot of Stephens) and I believe for the current tour only, Dave Martin, also on guitar.
They start with ‘E-talking’, a solid throbbing intro and it’s looking promising. Unfortunately when Stephen Dewaele starts to sing it becomes clear that either he’s not got a strong enough voice to carry it off live, or the sound engineer has fallen asleep. Cue search for sound engineer to see if he’s paying attention. Oh yeah, there he is tucked off in a corner staring into space – that’ll be the problem right there. Okay so you are in Amsterdam but perhaps you should lay off the joints until after the gig.
It takes a few songs for the sound engineer to snap out of it and to adjust the level of the vocals and then the concert starts to hot up and I am pleased to say that the singer is capable after all. They are playing most of the new album ‘AnyMinute Now’– which suits me – because it’s a ‘stoater’, along with a few of the old favourites from ‘Much Against Everyones Advice’ including the title track, ‘Conversation Intercom’, & ‘Too Many Dj’s’. ‘Compute’ is a great crowd pleaser, with a deep rib cage vibrating bass. They’re tight, despite the new line-up and are obviously enjoying playing. I’m also delighted to see they are able to chop and change instruments at will which is always a good sign. Don’t let me get started on keyboard players that play nothing but keyboards – Bah! But that is a rant for another time as it doesn’t apply here.
If anything they seem to lack a front man. Three of the guys with the matching haircuts spend most of the concert hiding behind them, and the other chap, who looks not unlike a young Trigger from ‘Only Fools and Horses’ – is so excited that he spends the entire concert grinning inanely from ear to ear. Stephen Dewaele, the singer, doesn’t seem to want to engage with the audience, not that he looks bored, more that he has totally withdrawn into his own little world. He bucks and writhes like a man possessed – but rarely acknowledges that the audience is there. Of course this is no new thing – but other bands such as Radiohead get away with it better. When Thom Yorke goes off on one he is so intense that you feel the emotions as though they are yours, with Stephen you experience it more as a slightly quizzical onlooker. The overall affect then for me, aside from a couple of interesting mid song diversions, is that of a band creating pristine regurgitations of album tracks. Regurgitated well, as I have said, BUT….. The audience however seem to be happy and there are even quite a few folk bopping around – which is a rarity in Holland – so who am I to complain.
The highlight of the concert were the encores – in which they played 3 cracking tracks, the first of which I had never heard before but is pretty rocking, the second, “NY Excuse” is an electronic track from the new album – which features 4 of the band on keyboards or twiddling gadgets and a fabulous sampled female voice. It’s very industrial, like Laibach or even Rammstein, and is really the kind of thing I am here for. Something to close your eyes to and get lost in. The other track, I think, was ‘Krack’. But don’t quote me. A good ending to an otherwise slightly disappointing concert.
It was all over in little more than an hour and I was rendered deaf in one ear. The sound engineer headed off to make another joint, the crowd pottered off, apparently satisfied. If I didn’t know that they were a few gigs into this tour then I’d have happily put the performance down to beginner’s nerves. Apparently they are off to Japan at the end of the month – I wonder how they will go down there? But then the album was released in Japan first so perhaps there’s a history there that I am not privy to. It does seem like a strange set of tour dates though. A couple of places in South America, a few dates in Europe and then off to Japan. Am I missing something?
Anyway; I don’t wish to be unfair on Soulwax, especially as I am a fan. It was a good concert; as I say ‘my ears are still buzzing’. Perhaps it’s because my expectations were so high was the reason the whole thing left me feeling a little flat. The new album itself is fantastic though. It’s taken a huge step up tempo from previous albums and yet still manages to balance this with their usual dark, enigmatic, sometimes laconic style. I just wanted to have my socks knocked off and they didn’t quite do it.
Words: Ondrea Kerr