Pagina's

Sunday, April 4, 2010

CONCERTREVIEWS : STAD VAN LICHT, BESNARD LAKES (ANTWERPEN, TRIX 03/04/2010)



One of the most played record this week must be "Besnard Lakes are roaring the night" and as soon as I found out that these Canadians were playing at Antwerp, I send my wife to town for buying me a ticket (I swear I did.., but thanks to me she discovered them too, ha!).
As soon as we arrived at Trix we saw that the gig was held in the bar from the venue so how big my love might be, it seems that the big audience still has to be convinced yet.
Perhaps it will be this summer as over here they will play at Pukkelpop which is a quite big festival.
Before we could face the psychedelic shoegaze from Besnard Lakes, the Trix-venue first invited us to see Stad Van Licht, which means Town Of Light, but mind you...they sing in English though and no...I don't understand it either why they choose a Dutch name.
Anyway, these 6 youngsters surely have listened well to bands like Pavement or the late Blur but what suits them is that they do it a bit different.
Perhaps at times a bit too different as the terrible curse of art rock always glimpses around the corner.
A short set from a band who has still some things to learn (which is only normal regarding their young age) but if they're careful and not forgetting that pop is pop then perhaps some nice things are to come.
And then it was time for the Canadian heroes.
No roadies but they all did it themselves.
The first time I saw singer Jace Lasek getting up the stage, I thought for a minute that I was facing Jerry Garcia.
Butmind you, they might look like hippies their music is not.
Already from the epic opener "The Ocean" the audience were overwhelmed by a brilliant wave of shoegazeguitars which reminded us of...yes, Slowdive!
And if you really wanna know, the band themselves state that they wanna sound like Led Zeppelin but I didn't hear that and anyone I know who has heard of them says the same : 'They're shoegazers!'.
For singer Jace there can't be enough smoke as after each song he pushed the button of the smokemachine and with the great words "We don't need white light, we need white heat", we knew what he meant.
Sadly enough a snare broke after the opener "The Ocean" which ruined a bit the atmosphere.
During this gap, Jace made some jokes about Iron Butterfly but regarding the reactions he must be the sole person in the venue who understood the clue anyway.
As soon as the guitar was fixed Besnard Lakes continued at what they were beginning, dragging the public down into a psychedelic atmosphere in where Olga (in real life the wife from Jace) developped herself as a hippie-version from Kim Gordon.
As soon as the concert was over, I just felt what I supposed before entering the venue.
Not only have Besnard Lakes made an album that will hit my Top 10 in 2010, they are one of the best bands around from this moment as well.
Don't be stupid too miss that!

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