Review: The New Pornographers, KOKOs, London - Oct 4th 2007
There is no Dan and no Neko, but as The New Pornographers close out the brief European leg of their current tour in the luscious surroundings of Camden’s KOKO club, it doesn’t seem important that only three-quarters of the band are here tonight—all that matters are the pitch-perfect pop songs, and they have those in abundance.
The Bleeding Heart Show
Standard tour opener All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth is replaced by the blistering Mutiny, I Promise You, which—like most of the first half of the set—the band race through, drummer Kurt Dahle driving the pace ever faster, even to the point of making ‘go faster’ motions with his free hand. Unsurprisingly for a promotional tour for their new album the set is heavy on the new songs, with seven tracks from the new album getting an outing.
But there was plenty of older material too—traditional crowd favourites Use It, Sing Me Spanish Techno and set closer The Bleeding Heart Show had the large crowd, which filled the floor and packed the lofty balconies (prompting keyboard player, Kathryn Calder, to comment: “Holy shit you guys are high up!”), bouncing happily and singing along.
Although complaining of the punishing schedule—four countries in five days, says AC Newman, can fuck you up more than any drug—the band appeared to enjoy themselves; Blaine Thurier, looking by turns bored and amused, waved and grinned at the front row; Calder met the demands of the Neko songs easily (although the sound wasn’t kind to her, with her vocals easily lost in the wall of sound) and traded jokes with Newman; bassist John Collins and guitarist Todd Fancey stood at the back and kept quiet, while frontman Newman kept the banter to a minimum in favour of playing as many of his power-pop masterpieces as possible.
After a brief break when the applause didn’t cease, they were back on stage for a single encore, closing with one of only two songs from their first album, The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism. We didn’t get the beautiful Letter From An Occupant, but without Neko present, who can blame them? One optimistic soul attempted to crowd-surf but ended up on the floor as the final “Salvation holdout central” faded and the house lights came up on a tired but happy crowd.
Roll on the next tour—but maybe bring the rest of the band along next time?
Set list
- Mutiny, I Promise You
- Use It
- All The Old Showstoppers
- The Electric Version
- My Rights Versus Yours
- Challengers
- The Spirit Of Giving
- All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth
- Unguided
- Jackie, Dressed In Cobras
- The Laws Have Changed
- Twin Cinema
- Mass Romantic
- Sing Me Spanish Techno
- The Bleeding Heart Show
Encore
- Testament To Youth In Verse
- From Blown Speakers
- The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism
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Comments
- Matthew Pennell
- 887 days ago
Agreed. I think if you hadn’t known the songs already, you wouldn’t have enjoyed it nearly as much—it would have just been so much noise.
- #2
Unfortunately, although the reviewer mentioned that the sound wasn’t kind to Calder, s/he neglected to lambaste the sound engineer for a terrible sound mix. The drums, namely the bass drum, drowned out the rest of the band, making it sound more like a dance remix of TNP. I think the band’s performance was very good despite the poor sound.
Tom