Efterklang live review - Pressure Point Brighton 2008

Efterklang live review of their gig in Brighton at The Pressure Point on April 3rd 2008.

who are efterklang?

Efterklang are a Danish five piece who create etheral music using a combination of electronic and orchestral sounds. Live they play with 3 other members, and include a lead singer and front man, trombone, trumpet, guitars, piano, keyboards, mixing desk and a violin. On record I have always found the band a little slight, without the right equipment their music is barely noticeable. Live things were a bit different though!

the music

Efterklang live sound like a cross between Múm and The Animal Collective, with elements of Godspeed!, The Arcade Fire and Sigur Ros. They seem to be trying for lots of different sounds, and while what they do works well, I’m not sure they are quite in the same leagues as any of the aforementioned bands. That said they are not far off, and are certainly the best band of their kind I’ve seen in a long while.

Tonight’s gig was marred slightly by the lack of strings. The band made up for this by whistling whilst pretending to play violins, but it wasn’t quite the same. That said, it took me quite a while to notice anything was missing as there is so much going on already, and it wasn’t until the end when the band pointed this out that I realised.

4/5

performance and banter

Efterklang were surprisingly chirpy for their music type, this type of band generally look at the ground and say very little. Efterklang are more like The Polyphonic Spree or fellow Scandinavians I’m From Barcelona. They look like they are having lots of fun, and hence we do too. The lead singer spoke a lot and was genuinely funny, with singing plastic penguins, requests for the towels and a surprisingly amusing story about the picking up of a suitcase from Resident Records which had been left behind in Wales.

5/5

sound quality

To me it sounded fine, but the band did have to keep asking for things to be turned up or down, despite apparently sorting it all out in the soundcheck. Venues this bad (see below) tend to have dreadful sound as well though, so considering I think we were quite lucky.

4/5

audience

The audience really got behind the band tonight, and when Efterklang thanked us at the end, they really sounded like they meant it. Requests by the band for clapping and singing along were always honoured, and a small group of people with dreadlocks were especially enthusiastic and excitable which gave everyone else the confidence to get a bit more involved too. We were rewarded with a superb encore.

5/5

venue

We arrived at the venue to the security guard refusing to allow the lead singer to reenter, apparently he didn’t have his wrist band on and the security guard didn’t seem to like the look of him. Fortunately this got sorted out, but its a prime example of what a dreadful venue the Pressure Point is.

The Pressure Point is dirty, the drinks are disgustingly expensive and are pretty disgusting full stop - I still have a stomach ache from just 2 beers. On the ceiling they have distracting 90’s rave stars which deflated during the support. Unless your right up the front you can’t see anything, although the band did point out the fact the stage has levels which they enjoyed. Finally, it was ridiculously hot - the band had to ask for towels at one point, this despite the fact the venue does have air conditioning - they just didn’t use it.

0/5 - close it down!

support

Support came from Our Broken Garden, which is a solo project by the pianist from Efterklangs live band. She sings lovely haunting melodies reminiscent of Cat Power (pre jazz era), fellow Scandinavians The Concretes + Taken By Trees, and the slower songs by Camera Obscura. All very wintry and nordic, although much of the set sounded strangely familiar, and the sound was such that it sounded almost like a recording instead of a live performance. Beautiful but unengaging.

3/5

overall

A great night, thanks to great music, and more importantly a fantastic attitude from both the band and the audience. Shame about the venue.

4/5

videos

Efterklang - Mirador

Efterklang - Swarming

more efterklang

The Official Efterklang Site is excellent, there’s a blog - regularly updated for once, some free mp3’s for download, all their music videos, concert listings, a very comprehensive photo blog, a detailed bio and a shop where you can buy t-shirt’s and cd’s. Best band website I’ve seen in a long time.

The Efterklang myspace doesn’t add much to the official site, just replicating the concert listings and music videos.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Brighton Gig Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.