Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Review: GIG Arcturus + Fen + From The Bogs Of Aughiska @ O2 Islington Academy (London) 13/12/2013

Best way to spend a Friday 13th evening. This gig was just great, excluding the first band...
Well, let's see the details for the three of them.
From The Bogs Of Aughiska were the first live act. From Ireland. A shocking , completely disturbing performance by two men, wearing shirt, tie and balaclava mask. One word to describe their music: noise. One guitarist and one "laptopist" doing as much noise as possible. There was a screen behind them with interesting images, but the music was horrifying. At some point the man in the laptop started yelling at the microphone, and it was the end of it for Lachryma Christi who abandoned the room and went to the merchandising area until they finished, looking for some peace. There were others doing the same, and almost all of them applauded when it finished, clearly relieved, and going back inside to see next bands. LC heard it on some studio release later, and wasn't much better than live.
Fen, British band, were the next. The thing with Fen is, or you like what they play or you don't, there is no middle point. Or you are into what they do, or forget about it. Lachryma Christi heard some bad opinions, yes they had some sound difficulties (as sadly has happened a lot in that venue for some reason, and only with some bands), but their performance was really great. If you like them, that is.
The guitar wasn't very easy to listen at times, the drums were again extraordinary loud, but not as loud as in Satyricon a few weeks ago, where your heart almost jumped through your mouth and your eyes almost went off their sockets. With Fen the sound was not so agressive, and after three or four songs, it actually started sounding alright. Only the guitar kept coming and going, sadly. It was a really powerful and emotional gig, really intense, strong. The three of them make an excellent team, was really good to see them live.
(By the way, you can find an interview with Fen and a review to their last album  here: http://lachrymachristizine.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/interview-with-fen-plus-review-to-fens.html )
And then came Arcturus. So awaited. Vortex is such a nice, fun, bouncy frontman. He really looks people in the eye, he is very interactive, making the public feel special. The whole band was wearing strange outfits, Vortex had some kind of mask with spectacles, something hard to describe. Not sure what sort of mask is that.
So yeah, there was place for old stuff, more recent stuff, there was place for some jokes, for a lot of fun, public was happy, satisfied, sadly the curfew was not late, so it felt like a short gig, but really good. Ok, some more old songs would have been nice to hear too. On the last song Vortex loosened his hair and public lost it and started doing a violent mosh pit on the middle of the place. 
Was really good and hopefully there will be more opportunities to see Arcturus again. Really good atmosphere, good vibes, cheerful band, everything really awesome and inspiring.
Lachryma Christi has no pics for this. If you have some, and if you wish to share them, you can always leave a comment with a link, or if you want to see them posted together with this article (they will be credited of course), you can e-mail lachrymachristizine@gmail.com

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