Guillemots played their first US appearance last night at the Mercury Lounge. Fyfe Dangerfield, MC Lord Magrao, Aristazabal Hawkes, and Greig Stewart processed to the stage from the back of the crowd blowing noisemakers and clapping to a drum beat coming through the speakers. Their first few songs were not the light and airy pop songs they captured on record, but were overloaded with muddling keyboard effects and competing noise from the guitar. Fyfe sat before three keyboards as he soulfully sang about sparks, dragons, and the lights being off. At times during these first three songs I could have sworn he was play all three keyboards at once, while not likely, the keys melded into one big blur. This wall of sound was too much considering the guitar isn't usually strumming a melody. Instead he's creating chaos with a power drill next to the pickups or thrashing away using a metal slide to make eerie high pitch shrills. Without a clear melody from the keys, it was a lot of noise to deal with. The keyboards began to harmonize better on "Trains to Brazil," which also made the guitar and stand-up bass clearer. During that song the band found their groove and sounded great for the rest of the show. MC topped the drill noises by banging on an old amp-up typewriter where you could hear the patter of letters and ding of the bell roughly to the beat. For the song "Blue," Fyfe sang the ballad solo without a microphone and played a simple melody as he swayed, cradling a tiny keyboard. Seeing the Guillemots live exposes the fragility of their organic pop tunes but the songs are better for it.
The US release From the Cliffs, which is a collection of the two EPs Trains to Brazil and I Saw Such Things in My Sleep, comes out March 16th.
BrooklynVegan was also there.
Set list:
Window Pane / Who Left the Lights On / Love Song #43 / Trains to Brazil / Go Away / Blue / Sao Paulo
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