- Fri, 2010-09-03 14:59
Everything Everything live @ Rough Trade East, September 1st 2010
On Wednesday evening, London’s Rough Trade East saw a sizeable queue snaking away from its entrance, including among its number Laura Marling and Marcus Mumford. On the other side of the doors Everything Everything, the men for whom the eager crowd had amassed, were preparing to play a short set showcasing their debut album Man Alive, released two days previously. A bold and complex affair, Man Alive is a highly produced and musically adventurous collection of songs. Indeed, so multi-faceted is the band’s sound, that when I Like Music spoke to them recently they explained that playing live was a potentially tricky proposition:
Jonathan: We write with a laptop so things tend to get a little bit out of control in terms of what's actually possible. There might be twenty things happening on the recording and when it comes to the band they go well, there's no way we can ever do this! We have to try and find the most important things, the things that move us when we first hear them and try and perform those.
Reading such comments and listening to the album one might easily come to the conclusion that Everything Everything are one of those bands whose live endeavours cannot live up to the intricate majesty of their recorded work. Don’t believe it for a moment.
Seconds into the first song, Suffragette Suffragette, it’s clear that nothing is lost in translation from record to stage. From its tense, staccato verse to the violent bark of the pre-chorus riff and the maelstrom of harmonised vocals that follow, all is not only present and correct but expertly executed. Qwerty Fingers makes use of pre-recorded elements played via a laptop, but not obtrusively so; the jittery energy and sense of near-chaos remains in tact. Perhaps more impressive still is the fact that lead singer Jonathan Higgs’ rapid alternation between falsetto and normal singing is just as crystalline live as it is on record.
Schoolin’ follows, its intricacy requiring each member of the band to reveal just how technically adept they are on their respective instruments, and how seamlessly they come together as a unit. A change in pace is then provided by Tin (The Manhole), which, though one of the album’s more subdued songs, really comes alive on stage. The four way harmonies are picked out perfectly and drift to the front of a striking sonic landscape that could almost belong to Radiohead’s In Rainbows. Having provoked little in the way of a reaction upon its introduction, its conclusion is met with fervent applause.
Recent single My KZ Yr BF receives the warmest welcome of the night. Leaping from fidgeting bass-led passages to spacious, epic choruses, it is possibly the album’s most musically challenging tune, but is once again recreated with devastating precision. Photoshop Handsome closes the short set in a highly energetic fashion, giving a glimpse of what must be a truly raucous final song in the right venue.
The set is all too brief for everyone’s tastes, but it serves its purpose in demonstrating that the live incarnation of Everything Everything is every bit as engaging and awe-inspiring as its recorded counterpart. If you get the opportunity to see them, take it!
