Urlaubshits

I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a palpable sense of anticipation waiting to watch a support act before, especially for one so musically challenging opening for an act (Röyksopp) that are by comparison so incredibly safe, their brand of bright Scandinavian electro-pop being about as far removed from Karin Dreijer Andersson’s dark and occasionally alienating performance as could possibly be. This anticipation was mirrored by the opening drone loop of “If I Had A Heart” which opened her set. Repeated for what seemed like an eternity in complete pitch black, the audience seemed split between those who knew just what to expect, and those who were perhaps just a little disoriented, and possibly quite scared.

The performance was as strange as anyone could have expected from one half of The Knife; the huge stage, though literally packed with musicians playing the myriad of sounds that comprise Fever Ray’s vast palette, was for the entirety of the hour long set, bathed in almost complete darkness, to the point where it was often impossible to discern where Andersson herself was even standing. It occasionally felt that she was taking her famous reluctance to show her face in any way to ridiculous extremes, perhaps engaging in some kind of man behind the curtain charade to play games with the audience’s expectation of her. There were however, brilliant concessions made to lighting. Apart from the typical lasers and strobes, the real spectacle came from some very ordinary looking lampshades. These offered no real illumination of the stage, but their orange hues served as a visual counterpoint to the organic elements of her music, as well as the themes of domesticity present in the lyrics. But far from offering any kind of home comforts, they flickered on and off, sometimes dimming, all with the feel of being trapped in a haunted house, perhaps an allusion to the way she felt when writing the album, especially present in the lyrics of standout track “Concrete Walls”: “I live between concrete walls/ In my arms she was so warm/ Oh how I try/ I leave the TV on/ And the radio.” During the live performance of this track the lamps were utilised to great effect, with the lamps flashing on and off in response to the snare drum, managing to bring an incredible sense of scale to proceedings that no laser light show ever could.

There were some complaints, most notably the Royal Festival Hall’s complete inability to cope with any kind of amplified sound. The low end was so great that it literally caused a light to be shaken free of it’s fittings, something which resulted in an irritating vibrations in time with every beat. Also, “Dry and Dusty” (one of my personal highlights of the album) fell completely flat due to Andersson changing the key and as a consequence it just didn’t hit the sublime heights of the album version. These however are small complaints which did nothing to detract from what was utterly absorbing. And as someone who has felt a bit short changed when seeing The Knife perform live, the comparitively large scoale of Fever Ray’s performance was a welcome relief.

As the show progressed it felt like Andersson was coming out of her shell somewhat; but a red light which illuminated her from behind revealed another layer of mystique, showing her to be wearing a vast headdress and cloak, it’s antlers cutting a vaguely demonic figure in the crimson gloom. But far from being part of some elaborate pantomime, the theatrics never feel anything less than an intrinsic part of Fever Ray’s music, and the character that Andersson becomes is something that cannot be fully grasped by listening to the record alone. The performance ended with the album closer “Coconut”, a track which owes more to dubstep that the Euro-techno influences of The Knife’s previous album. As the song ended, and the bass pulsed in time with the slowly narrowing lasers, I don’t think there were many who weren’t left astounded by what they had seen.

Download:> Fever Ray – Coconut

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Fever Ray is out now on Rabid Records

Buy it from Juno