My affair with The Pierces started a few back when the US TV show Pretty Little Liars was on, using their track ‘Secret’ as its theme song. I instantly hated the show, but upon hearing the song in question, I immediately reached for the rest of the Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge album, and was thrilled by its dark, twisted playfulness and the variety of undertones in their eccentric pop. Unfortunately, while miles better than their bland two previous folk pop albums, it still failed to bring them their desired commercial breakthrough, which put a potential 4th album off the agenda.

It’s Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman who Catherine and Allison Pierce owe their career revival to, but sadly, upon getting back on their feet as a musical duo, they abandoned all efforts of originality and experimentation and went with the familiar folk-pop formula. This resulted in the much more tamed album You & I in 2011, where the sisters no longer tell tales of love and revenge, but rather sing ballads of love and loss. Having finally reached commercial success, they went for the same theme in their latest LP, Creation, which came out at the beginning of this month and brought them on a UK September tour, featuring a London gig at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

After uninspiring support act El May, Allison and Catherine went onstage with a four-piece band for support, in front of a fairly irresponsive, predominantly middle-aged crowd. For an opening song they had picked ‘Elements’ off of their latest outing, a beautiful song which did not lift the mood much but rather slowly put the audience in a kind of a trance, fascinatedly listening to the sisters’ dreamy harmonies. Indeed, the duo were on top of their game, laying their voices in a perfect sync, which is where their enchanting powers lie.

Next came ‘Love You More’, which is one of the rare tracks on You & I that still has that Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge air about it, back when Allison and Catherine had assumed the fatal image of seductive vampire-like creatures. This was a welcomed change in pace, where the sisters and the support band rocked the stage for a few minutes, and revived a small segment of the crowd. The tempo was promptly subdued by the harmonies of Creation’s title track, followed by some more love ballads off the new record, mixed in with You & I classics ‘It Will Not Be Forgotten’ and ‘ We Are Stars’, with the set of songs featuring themes of new – ‘Believe In Me’ and lost romances ‘I Put Your Records On’.

The second part of the set featured Creation’s stronger numbers: the lively ‘Come Alive’ with its distinctive 80s disco feel, the high-rising vocals of ‘Kings’ and ‘The Devil Is A Lonely Night’, which, with the added live synth kick, sounded like it could have been written by Depeche Mode. The main set ended with the sunny ‘You’ll Be Mine’, after which the sisters came back for an encore featuring a song from their childhood – Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Kathy’s Song’, the heartfelt ballad ‘Flesh And Bone’, and closing with the vigorous hippie guitars of ‘Glorious’.

The Pierces’ performance was as strong as ever, but the setlist would have benefited of more of the duo’s upbeat songs. Throughout the better part of the gig, the tempo was plodding, and a large part of the audience looked like they were about to fall into a ballad-induced coma, especially with the majority of the songs being not that familiar, as they were coming from Creation. Moreover, while new fans would not experience this, I was deeply disappointed that I did not hear a single song from The Pierces’ most distinctive record, Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge, but this only served to prove that the band has firmly put this stage behind them and have firmly grasped the folk-pop balladry.

Mariana Nikilova