10 February 2016 (gig)
14 February 2016
An odd night this in North London a sold out venue for two bands – mewithoutYou and The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die (TWIABP) - making big waves though it becomes clear during the night who had the pull factor.
Unenviably opening for these two but making the best of it are Delta Sleep from the UK. Through a solid set they prove beyond doubt that they are brilliant musicians. Their complex post rock is very impressive and at times they do start to create a bit of atmosphere, they just let themselves down a bit with all the fretboard jiggery-pokery.
MewithoutYou by their own admission have been away for a while though from opener Pale Horse to last song Nice ‘n’ Blue (pt2) it’s obvious they haven’t been idle; a band doesn’t give this intense a performance by luck.
Not an easy band to categorise as they quite easily hit the buttons for the stoners, the indies and the avant-garde. What they are though is damn heavy, though not Metal. No, this is heavy, oppressive and at times menacing, songs hewn into great monoliths of black granite sounds.
They play with light to shade with ease, never missing a note and in Aaron Weiss a charismatic frontman capable of brute force (Red Cow) and tenderness - of sorts (In a Sweater Poorly Knit). Focal point Weiss may be but the rest of the band aren’t a backup. Guitars build and tear, rhythms ebb and flow. Yes, it is techy but it’s a means to an end rather self-indulgent.
A comprehensive set that sees songs from Pale Horse mix easily with older stuff, all of which is greeted like old friends by a passionate crowd that occasionally, and spontaneously, join in.
It was going to be difficult for TWIABP to follow, and matters are compounded by a noticeably thinned out audience once they took to the stage. Which is a shame (and a waste of money for the leavers) as while the don’t have the ferocity of mewithoutYou they do have stage presence (and that’s not just sheer numbers). They proceed to play a solid set which on any other night would be a triumph. It’s just their bad luck that tonight they follow a band that are uncontainable.
