Live Music with Liz Crosthwaite - Amy's Ghost single launch party
Published 16 Sep 2011 09:30
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Giant jellyfish, unnervingly unblinking puppets, face-painted tribe-members mingling? You couldn't be anywhere else but an Amy's Ghost gig.
The band launched their new single, Peaceful Sleepers, with an enchanting party at South Street Arts Centre last Saturday, and the temperature in the beautifully decorated venue was already rising to 'ooh, I wish I'd just worn a t-shirt' levels when guitar and drums duo Wild Swimmers took to the stage. While not exactly taking the stage by storm with charisma or posing, the pair unleashed an absorbing torrent of beats and riffs that belied their understated appearance.
A rather different kettle of (jelly)fish were Suzerain, a band with members keen to showcase every musical clothing style available - from the dreadlocked bassist to the metal-styled drummer - and who threw in choice cuts from a whole host of genres too, from gothic warbles to punky breakdowns, synthy bits, and even some rather poppy hooks. Singer and sometimes guitarist Thomas Pether is undeniably the sun around which the rest of the band orbit, whether wrestling the mic, strumming his guitar, or crooning to the crowd - he is a born alt-rock frontman, with swagger.
Preluding their set with a walkabout alongside one of Hogarth Productions' creepy giant puppets, from the off Amy's Ghost command attention. In a now rather sweaty room, the band crammed onto the stage with their collection of drums, keyboards, two cellos, a drumkit and guitars, facing a crowd of followers bedecked in their signature intricate black facepaint. AG's new material - interjected almost apologetically with Amy's typically polite banter into a set of crowd-pleasing older songs - hints strongly at a move towards more hard-edged, industrial sounds, a fact thrown into sharp relief against more haunting, classically-tinged tracks like Hideaway and These Eyes.
It's clear by now that Amy's Ghost are something special, and if Peaceful Sleepers is anything to go by, then their new album is going to be full of some very welcome surprises.
l In other news, Vetoes are releasing their new single, Rats, at Old Blue Launch in London on Sunday, September 25. They will be supported by fellow Reading band Attention Thieves. The Guide will be there, and so should you.
This article appeared in Royal Borough Observer 16 Sep 11
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