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| Image credit: xkix Flickr Eagulls Support from: Spectres Fiddlers, Bristol Thursday 3rd March 2016
With quality of product as a backbone, there’s something
perennially beautiful about four men on a stage just making a racket,
especially if they seem right at home doing it. Spectres are no strangers to
the artfulness that comes with shoegaze/noise music, nor do they readily reject
it. Their headline appearance at Howling Owl’s New Year New Noise event back in
January was surrounded by a graceful air, but tonight, on a stage in the modest
Fiddlers with no backdrop or exhibitionistic sensibilities, they excel as an
actual rock band. Their deliriously groovy idiosyncrasies as students of both
mesmerising krautrock repetition and the art of the riff shine through beneath
the fist-clenching swathes of volume, and the energy and presence with which
they deliver said bouts is almost punk rock in essence.
Energy and presence are important to keep in mind when
considering what is disappointing about Leeds post-punk howlers Eagulls
tonight. They begin with recent single ‘Lemon Trees’, and right from off the
off they both sound great and play with the kind of precision that shines a new
compositional light on their music. They impart a number of new songs, all of
which seem to be of a slightly slower, more intricate persuasion, the guitar
lines certainly more tame and intricate, their favoured trick of reverb being
used to slightly more shimmering effect. The older favourites get an
enthusiastic reception, the pit becoming most energetic during a splendid
rendition of ‘Hollow Visions’. Aside from vocalist George Mitchell however,
none of the band members seem interested in any particular expression, a
physical presence swapped out for a willingness to let Mitchell’s reserved but
strident fervour to steal the limelight. It’s a slightly disconcerting
portrayal of their music, but the tunes are still raw and blood-pumping enough
for the set to be enjoyable.
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