Live report: Loney, Dear, Shout Out Louds + Maia Hirasawa @ ICA, London UK 05/24/07
The trees outside the Institute Of Contemporary Arts are full, the dust from the track outside is arid and the air wet – thunder is needed.
Situated 150m downstream from Buckingham Palace the ICA is the only 'commercial' building permitted within St James' Park boundary, the juxtaposition monarchy and new music.
Back in London within a week of last visiting these shores Maia Hirawasa opened. Backed by cellist, double bass and pianist, her set was from recent album "Though, I'm just me", a truly veritable performance: "Well, she know's what she's doing," Andres Lokko pipes.
All the 'hits', no glitches commanding a three-quarters full venue, sounded tremendous - Can't beat the classic sensibility of this performance. Her set was peppered with anecdotes about meeting new friends and boys. The defining moment in her set came from the dramatic "Gothenburg", full of gently plucking and hushed vocals.
Note on Hirawasa: Each of four times T!T!T! has seen her perform, she has always worn stage dress, couture, aka: made the effort. It might be age catching me, but presentation is small effort and those boys need to shape up!
Anyways, still no thunder, but lightning did strike: Shout Out Louds need no intro, they were the main draw. They have visited London more times per album than any other Swedish act of similar career step in the last five years, and it shows – there were many here for this act alone.
New material which nudges the 'this sounds like....[insert band name here]' gene, came and went "Tonight I have to leave it" half a pace behind the massive songs "Impressive" and "You Are Dreaming" from the recent Our Ill Wills album.
Current 'myspace single,' "Tonight I have to leave it", as announced by vocalist Adam, was treated like an old favourite.
From "Howl howl gaff gaff", SoL has spared themselves certain mental illness and remodelled popular cuts, "Please, please, please" and "Very loud" turning them into new updated versions, we might call this critical security updates. Those two were more whacked out, new patches and ports opened to throttle the song back to life. They sounded great.
Loney, Dear has built up a formidable following from constant touring, and for someone who makes such gently music the crowd were whooping uncontrollably. Largely forgettable, but well received like a dose of McDonalds, we all have our weak moments and feel satisfied for a wee while. Loney, Dear is something of guilty pleasure.
With DJs from Off The Wall and Andres Lokko filling in between bands, and the theatre style announcer calling interval time, the night lent some nice touches to impressive production (great lighting) and sound and the agents... actually let's leave that one while the thunder abates.
Tack!Tack!Tack! is grateful to:
Anders Bergmark (Swedish Institute) & Avi Roig (It's a Trap!) and the god of T!T!T!'s understanding.