According to the blurb at the top of this page, you’re here, on this website, for “the one thing lacking in so many places these days: an honest opinion.” I applaud you for your choice, and for the vast majority of the time, this site delivers just that; an unbiased, honest opinion. What follows, however, is my review of Wintersleep’s show at The Lexington in London on May 17th, 2010. It is honest; it will not be unbiased. It will be the ramblings of a 27 year old man, reduced to the level of squealing teenage girl by five guys from Canada, and an hours worth of music. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
The Lexington is a nice, modern-yet-retro style bar/club type thing in Islington; equidistant between Angel and King’s Cross. We slip quietly through the entrance of the bar during quiz night (hosted, by the sounds of things, by Ray Von from Phoenix Nights), up the stairs and into the small gig venue part of the building. Support act The Brothers Movement are on stage, and already the place is heaving! Wintersleep seem to have a strong following in London (possibly due to a huge amount of ex-pat Canadians), but still the crowds they manage to pull in still surprise me. Now, don’t get me wrong, they deserve to be playing to audiences much larger than this, but I’ve seen them more times outside of London than have in and it seems that as soon as you leave the capital, the numbers disappointingly dwindle. There should be some kind of law against it. I’m going to write to my MP. Even Edith Bowman’s here. Anyway, the place is an intimate, two tiered affair with long leather sofas flanking the walls, and boudoir-esque paint job. As The Brothers Movement finish up, Wintersleep wander on stage one by one to set up and soundcheck. Shortly before 10pm they’re ready to go, and so am I!
Wintersleep are back in the UK to promote their new album ‘New Inheritors’ (available now! Go and buy it!); a good, solid grower of an album and follow up to the masterpiece that is ‘Welcome to the Night Sky’. The evening’s show is pretty much split 50/50 between the two albums. ‘Drunk on Aluminium’ and ‘Archaeologists’ start things off. This opening pair gets used a lot in Wintersleep setlists, and definitely succeed in getting things warmed up. Great as these tracks are, I’m keen to hear the newer stuff. After a few greetings and introductions, the first ‘New Inheritors’ track is trotted out. Echolocation is one of the strongest songs from the new album by far, and live it’s just as impressive. A mid-tempo, ambient and layered tune with a catchy, twiddly guitar hook over the top of what can loosely be described as the chorus courtesy of hirsute guitarist Tim D’eon. Another new track: Preservation follows next. This is one of the tracks from the new album which took a while for me to get into, but as often happens with me, a live airing of an otherwise underwhelming song will add a new level of appreciation to it. This time was no exception, and in fact it ended up being one of the most enjoyable tracks of the night, and one which I’d find myself humming for days after. This two-new-then-two-not-so-new pairings of songs continued though out the evening, including (in no particular order) poppy sing along Weighty Ghost, rocking crowd favourites Black Camera and Oblivion, musical staccato-fest Experience the Jewel and jangly title track New Inheritors. The best was kept for last however. A hat trick of incredible songs: the sublimely haunting Baltic featuring some fantastic rhythm section work from bassist Mike Bigelow and drummer Loel Campbell. The uber crescendo track Laser Beams, which begins with Paul more or less whispering the lyrics over a barely audible guitar riff and finishes six minutes later with you pinned to the back wall by the wall-of-sound rock out jams which Wintersleep do so well. This epic triptych was completed in perfect fashion with Miasmal Smoke and the Yellow Bellied Freaks, to my ears one of the greatest songs ever written. Weighing in at 7 minutes at the best of times, the live version features an extended jam in the middle pushing it over the 10 minute mark yet it doesn’t feel anywhere near that long, and as always, leaves me with a tingling sensation down my spine. Superb. The band leave the stage briefly before returning to finish things up with a single song encore in the form of Trace Decay another song from ‘New Inheritors’ which has grown on me hugely. I, along with the rest of the crowd, are sorry to see the band leave. An hour seems nowhere near long enough, but at about £7 a ticket, we’ve easily had our monies worth.
The whole band are on form tonight, but for me there was a clear star of the show. Before I had ever seen them live, a friend of mine gave me some advice: “Watch the drummer”. To be fair, it’s hard no to. Loel Campbell is like a man possessed; you can practically see the spirits of Keith Moon and John Bonham battling for space behind the kit. In a brief chat with him before the show, he told me that “He wasn’t feeling great” and had “picked up a bug in Paris”. I thought this might effect his performance, but it was far from it. The guy is mesmeric, with some of the best facial expressions of any musician you care to mention! So, if (or more hopefully WHEN) you finally get to see them live, I’ll pass the advice on again: Watch the drummer.
This is how Wintersleep should, no, sorry: MUST be seen. Live and up close. ‘New Inheritors’ has by far the most “polished” and “produced” feel of all their albums; something which initially jarred with me compared to their previously more lo-fi productions. But, in a live show, with some of the studio sheen kicked off them, the new songs more than hold their own. It was a shame that they didn’t dig a little deeper into their back catalogue, but I guess you can’t have it all. I’ll just have to see them again. And again. And again. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it…
check out Wintersleep at: www.myspace.com/wintersleep