Then Comes Silence don’t do things by halves. Rightly regarded
by commentators as disparate as The 69 Eyes’ vocalist Jyrki and veteran Leeds
goth DJ Mark M as the best new goth/post-punk act of the twenty-first century,
the Swedish band has already delivered probably the best trilogy of albums
since The Cure’s dark masterpieces of the very early 1980’s with Nyctophilian
(2015), Blood (2017) and Machine (2020). Their recent
contribution to the Gothicat Online Festival, a quarantine cover of Siouxsie
and The Banshees’ Christine, was widely considered to be by far the best
on the night, and when they announced a live stream concert of their own for
Thursday 14th May, it was clear that this was not going to be a
half-hearted affair.
Renting one of Stockholm’s most atmospheric clubs (Hus 7) as
the venue, and with stage lighting and a professional camera crew orchestrated
by Damon Zurawski, who produced the stunning video of their last single Apocalypse Flare, Then Comes Silence set a new standard for other musicians to follow
in what may be an extended period when normal touring is not possible, creating
the illusion of a live club performance in the comfort of the viewers’ own
living rooms, and transporting me personally back ten months to the night when
I saw them on top form in a cellar bar in Edinburgh.
The band made the gig even more inclusive for fans by allowing them to vote for the setlist via an online poll on their Facebook fan club, with the top twelve songs selected for the show. In the end, Ritual was
excluded from the gig (presumably because of the unavailability of True Moon’s
Karolina Engedahl who duets on the album version) but otherwise all the fans’
favourites were played in a well-paced show covering the last three albums,
beginning with the opening track from Blood, The Dead Cry For No-One.
What was immediately apparent was the sheer quality of the sound production,
which was as sharp as at any gig I have attended in the past forty years: Jonas
Fransson’s drumming underpins the whole live experience, and the value of the
human drummer over a machine was demonstrated on several occasions, for example
when there was a false start to the band’s best known track (measured by YouTube
views), Strangers from Nyctophilian, and in songs like The
Rest Will Follow, where twin guitarists Mattias Ruejas Jonson and Hugo Zombie
have licence to show their flair. The latest recruits to the band, Jonson and
Zombie are a dream partnership of opposites, the former impressing with his
precision and extensive use of a bewildering array of pedal effects, whilst the
latter the band’s visual focus, a whirling dervish in perpetual motion reacting
to the moment in the best tradition of alternative rock’n’roll.
The clear focal point of the band is centre stage however,
with panda-eyed founder member, singer and bassist Alex Svenson dominating the
show with his lugubrious baritone croon and magnetic charisma, dramatically raising
his bass to a vertical position at crucial points in the more up-tempo songs
like Flashing Pangs of Love and She Loves The Night. The brooding
Good Friday, Svenson’s emotional farewell to his dying father, the punky
Strange Kicks, the dramatic Dark End and the band’s cinematic signature
tune W.O.O.O.U. from the new album were other highlights in a triumphant
main set that ended with a wonderful rendition of the epic Kill It, with
Fransson and his illuminated drumkit lost in a sea of dry ice whilst Ruejas Jonson
successfully replicated the six string alchemy of the version on Machine.
After a suitable gap mirroring the pause in a gig, with frantic demands for an
encore raining in on the comments from fans on the YouTube live stream, Svenson
lead the band back on stage for a further two numbers, ending with a celebratory
romp through Animals, always a live favourite.
With this exquisitely filmed virtual gig, Then Comes Silence have reinforced their
position at the very forefront of the current goth/post-punk revival and set a
new standard for live stream shows, matching the consistently high standard of
their studio work, and exhibiting both a professionalism and a musicality
(combining melody, power and atmosphere) worthy of a huge mainstream following
to go with their current cult fanbase of like-minded cognoscenti. Any promoters
dropping in on this stellar show will surely have pencilled the band in at the top of
their festival wishlist for the time when live gigs ultimately recommence, but for the time
being the Swedes have served up a wonderful boost for the mental and emotional
well-being of their adoring fanbase, who were encouraged to contribute to the
significant cost of staging the event either by direct donation or via the virtual merch table.
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