A typically awesome performance by the un-stereotypical Aussies (ie dark, moody and at times spooky – as far away from a beach as, say, a polar bear) was almost marred by a stereotypical Aberdonian crowd. Dour as fuck.
Whilst Howling Bells are far from being miserablists, indeed most of their tracks are uplifting and positive, even they struggled to lift a crowd of pallid and languid statues on Friday the 13th. Myself excluded.
I nearly pissed myself laughing though when lead singer Juanita Stein, in an effort to get the crowd onside, stated: “We’ve been in Ay-berdeen for two days now… It’s really special. You have so many nice buildings.”
I mean, she could have said: “I just love the way it’s so grey here, the women have no teeth and it smells of fish.” But of course she’d be wrong.
Either way, I’d probably have just told the crowd to lighten the fuck up and enjoy themselves.
Indeed they had every reason to. From the thunderous chant of set-opener ‘Radio Wars Theme’ which blended seamlessly into the dark, malevolence of ‘Treasure Hunt’, the set relied heavily on tracks from the frankly brilliant new album, ‘Radio Wars‘.
But perhaps the largely male-dominated crowd were simply transfixed. Coming on stage wearing a t-shirt bearing her own face (to be honest if I was that photogenic I’d probably have my own face tattooed. On my face) , Juanita slinked and shimmied across the stage, pulling shapes and striking poses; proving herself to every bit the front-woman. It’s possible, just possible, that the crowd were in actual fact dumbstruck.
Long-time fans of the band would’ve left happy with the inclusion of tracks such as ‘Low Happening’ and ‘Setting Sun’ but for me the stand-out moments were when they played newer material such as the epic ‘Nightingale’ and the creepy ‘Golden Web’.
The biggest disappointment of the night for me? No encore. But with such a wishy-washy crowd I wouldn’t have played a second longer for them either.