The Antlers LIVE @ Manchester Ritz, 31.10.14

It’s Halloween night in a dark and damp Manchester and the skeletons, bloody doctors and slutty cats are out in floods. I’m happy to leave this spooky atmosphere ready to see The Antlers as I enter the Ritz but apparently the venue had a different idea. The background music is typically Halloween themed and for a straight half an hour is exactly what I imagine I’ll hear when I’m about to be murdered in a graveyard in the middle of the night. Discordant organ and eerie wailing added to a reasonably empty venue doesn’t set the tone excellently for the evening.

Happily my mood is soon improved by the arrival of the wonderful Marika Hackman. Hackman has blown me away the previous occasions I have seen her perform live (supporting Johnny Flynn and Alt-J) and tonight is no exception. Despite some technical difficulties and her attempts stage chat – “maybe it’s a ghost spooky electricals oooo” – Hackman’s beautiful vocal and exquisite song-writing skill still showed her to be a super live artist. Even minor coughing fits didn’t stop her from shining bright. Tracks like ‘Bath In Black’ are just superbly written, and we are even treated to a sweet cover of Joanna Newsom’s ‘’81’.

The Antlers arrive on stage at 8:15, an early start due to Halloween festivities, to great cheers and loud whistling from the still spacious room. Darby Cicci appears wearing a rather unsettling mask, and doesn’t take it off except on the occasions he’s required to play the trumpet, true Halloween spirit. Extensive introductions full of ethereal synths and sounds are The Antlers’ speciality and they bring it out in droves tonight. Such lengthy intros seriously rank up the anticipation in the room, all excited for the music they know to start.

The Antlers’ music is overall gloriously mystical – eerie and shimmering synth backing with effective drums and abrasive guitar all come together to make a mighty sound. However, the issue with tonight’s performance is that this was the only sound produced for the duration of the set. There was little excitement or new and exciting developments to be heard throughout. This may be simply due to the band drawing on their new material, which is of a different standard to their early work. Old tracks like ‘Kettering’ receive the best reaction from the crowd, duly because of a recognisable and more stimulating sound coming from the stage.

There is no denying that The Antlers’ write some beautiful and striking music, it just simply wasn’t presented in tonight’s set. They are all talented musicians; some of the scales and chromatics played on trumpet are incredibly difficult and take a lot of skill to perfect – but unfortunately this didn’t save what could have been a significantly more varied and inspiring show.

Elli Brazzill
@littlelionelli

Elli Brazzill

Elli Brazzill

I’m Elli, 20 and live in Manchester. I like good music, gigs, rice krispies, 7” singles and puns. Alex G, Day Wave, Jaws, Talking Heads, Best Friends, Mac DeMarco, The Strokes, Parquet Courts and Tyler the Creator are pretty cool aren’t they. @cometobrazzill on twitter.