The shock and concern were great when last year, just as ARCHIVE were about to take European stages again, founding member and keyboardist Darius Keeler was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo surgery. Thank Buddha, everything went well and Keeler fully recovered.
Now ARCHIVE can hit the road again and are finally coming to Germany with their Call To Arms & Angels Tour, playing many sold out shows here. It's no secret that I like the Brits very much and sometimes drop everything for a concert. Today I take the concert as my personal birthday song ;)
:: pics :: RUSSELL MARSDEN ::
The :: FZW :: was not sold out this evening, but the hall was well filled and initially bathed in arctic blue light. The evening opened super punctually singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer :: RUSSELL MARSDEN ::, the only remaining member of the British indie rockers Band Of Skulls. But he has also contributed to at least one Archive track. So, a perfect match for this tour ;)
RUSSELL MARSDEN stood all alone on the packed stage with his sound machine, loop and guitar nearby and presented with Erounds and Sweet Sour two original Band Of Skulls songs, performed with a quite bluesy touch. Right after followed three, to date unreleased new tracks, RUSSELL MARSDEN experimented with here live on stage, as he told me afterwards. So that was five tracks in less than 30 minutes. Here and there a short (German) thank you to a restrained but benevolent audience and then it was over. Too bad. To me, it was much too short.
Band: Russell Marsden
Setlist: Erounds, Sweet Sour, Tumblin’ In The Blue, VCR, Bitter Dream
:: pics :: ARCHIVE ::
:: ARCHIVE :: seemed to be in a hurry too, because only 15 minutes later the Brits were on stage and opened their set with tracks from the current album Call To Arms & Angels, which was released last year’s spring and could not be presented live so far due to given reasons. Now the audience stood much closer, rocked out a little more and danced occasionally. The crowd though seemed to be a bit stiff in the hip. But well, it was Monday evening – the weekend might have been excessive... ;)
After various anniversary releases, Call To Arms & Angels was a long time coming and has become an opulent but a rather quiet double album. That might have been the reason why ARCHIVE mixed a best-of of old tracks with the new songs, so that we could experience a very dynamic set, especially since the quieter pieces live turned out to be more powerful than on CD. However, it must be said that the classics were (unsurprisingly) received much more enthusiastically.
Darius Keeler was almost going wild behind his keys and could hardly stand still for a minute. Seems he wants to enjoy life to the fullest, every second. Nice to see that he is doing so well again :)
From Surrounded By Ghosts on, the new singer Lisa Mottram joined the collective and stayed for a while. To be honest, I didn't like her voice that much. I prefer Maria and Holly, who could not partake in the tour this time. But I guess that's a matter of taste.
Light and sound were, as always, exquisite and wonderfully attuned to the songs and the show to convey lyrical concepts and the atmosphere accordingly. Once again, a dark blue dominated as the basic tone, while white lights, strobes and a good portion of smoke in between set accents. ARCHIVE really have a knack for this and let (not only) photographers' hearts beat faster ;)
After 90 minutes ARCHIVE let the evening end, but not without adding a 16-minute track as an encore with Again, so that they ended up with a 2-hour show again ;)
Yes, that was indeed a great show (again) and for me personally a perfect birthday evening.
Band: Darius Keeler (keys), Danny Griffiths (keys), Dave Pen (vox, git), Pollard Berrier (vox, git), Smiley (drums), Jonathan Noyce (bass), Mick Hurcombe (git), Lisa Mottram (vox)
Setlist: Mr. Daisy, Numbers, Bullets, Vice, Stick Me In My Heart, Conflict, Daytime Coma, Surrounded By Ghosts, Sky Collapsing, Take My Head, The Crown, Fear There & Everywhere, Enemy, The Empty Bottle, Gold // Again
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