Last
Sunday, the city of Paris and Le Trabendo was once again blessed to host yet
another evening with David Eugene Edwards and the boys from Alternative
Country/folk rock act Wovenhand from Denver, Colorado, on tour promoting their
latest record released last year through Glitterhouse and Deathwish Inc . As the
evening passed and the start of the show drew nigh, the venue ended up filling
up with quite an impressive amount of fans, so I hastily made my purchases at
the merch stand before heading into the pit to save myself a good spot.
Joining
these Colorado cowboys on this current tour were another band I had been
eagerly waiting to see, the Los Angeles band known as Marriages, featuring one
of my favorite female vocalists, Emma Ruth Rundle, whom I got the opportunity
to interview before the start of the show. This current tour marked the bands'
first set of European dates, offering fans an opportunity to hear songs off the
bands' debut album Salome, released earlier that week.
The L.A. trio stepped to the stage at 8pm sharp, greeting the audience with a
timid and all too humble "Hello, we're Marriages. We're gonna be playing
some songs then Wovenhand are gonna come on" before getting right to
business. The band started off their set with the swelling shoegazy sounds of
"Ride in my place", the opening track of their debut EP Kitsune, from which only 2 tracks will be played tonight,
dedicating the rest of the set to the bands' latest release.
A few moments into the start of the set, my attention was drawn towards the
quality of the overall sound, which was arranged and blended into a pretty
clear and organic mix. The drum set was set up with a nice, punchy kick tone
which blended and locked in nicely with the bass guitar, serving as a solid
rhythmic layer on top of which Emma added her shoegazy guitar and her
beautiful, emotionally gripping reverb-heavy vocals. There were few instances
during which the guitar sections were a tad bit buried by the other instruments,
though they did little to undermine the overall quality of the show.
The setlist also got to showcase the bands' few readjustments to their sound:
whereas the bands' EP mainly drew from
shoegaze and post-rock, the debut album tones down the linear, compositional
formula in favor of more traditional "song" structures, with the
addition of subtle hints of metal and influences from Emma’s recent solo work.
Every song was superbly rendered live through the bands' terrific performance,
making for a set full of melancholic, soothing passages gradually swarming up
into epic, magnificent sonic tempests. After such a great show, my guess is
that we've yet to hear the last of Marriages, as we'll most likely be seeing
"Salome" featured on quite a few year-end lists... we'll just have to
wait and see!
After a
short intermission, the time had come for the Colorado Cowboys from Wovenhand to come forth to
the stage. The lights dimmed down and out came the magnificent 4, with frontman
David Eugene Edwards looking as serious as ever, sporting his signature brimmed
hat. The set kicked off with the rockin' riffage of "Good Shepherd"
off of the bands' latest album, Refractory Obdurate, prominently
played during the course of the evening.
With their latest album, the bands' sound shifted towards a louder, heavier
sound with a more prominent use of distorted guitars, a sound that the quartet
decided to adopt for every song on the setlist, old as in new, offering a
freshly revised rendition of some older tracks. This came as quite a surprise
to me at first, and I was absolutely blown away by how heavy they were compared
to their more acoustic-driven studio recordings. The vocals also received a
fairly different treatment compared to the studio records, David Eugene
Edwards' deep, soulful voice going through a band-pass filter centered on the
medium frequencies to give a strong low-fi radio distortion quality to the
sound. Strangely enough, I would say that some of the amped up renditions of
the older tracks added an interesting post-punk vibe to the songs, as if Joy
Division had gotten into a time machine and landed up in the dusty old' wild,
wild west, at the time of cowboys and Indians.
In terms of overall sound, the mix was absolutely stellar, near-flawless, with
yet another thick, punchy kick drum sound combined with an intense bass guitar
tone that was both loud and heavy while retaining crystal clarity on each and
every note. The guitars and vocals fitted the overall sound impeccably and
every instrument stayed intelligible during the entirety of the set.
Occasionally some of the songs would mark some downtime, with the whole
instrumentation taking a step back and leaving the spotlight to frontman David
Edwards' haunting voice and his immense charisma to shine through in its full
radiance. Over a steady tambourine beat, the man seemed to grow deeper and
deeper into a trance, waving a few hand and head gestures in between guitar
strokes like an apache chief, captivating the whole audience with his aura and
charisma. I would occasionally wake back to my senses only to realize that 5
full minutes had flown by, having been completely sucked into the frontman's
shamanic trance, channeling the spirits from beyond.
After
finishing up their set with the climactic "Salome", the band returned
for an encore with "Glistening black". Wovenhand then stepped off
stage, the lights and P.A music came back on, signaling that this magnificent
evening had come to close... Or did it really? While some audience members
walked away, a good deal of the front row started cheering for what seemed to
be a hopeless plea for yet another encore. 5 minutes went by and finally David
Edwards stepped back onto the stage to our great surprise, armed with his
antique mandolin, and proceeded to play breathtaking, 13 minute solo cover of
Bob Dylan’s' "As I went out one Morning". A terrific way to end the
evening.
As an avid
concert-goer, I dare say that I've seen quite a number over the years, but
nights like these only come around come around rarely. After a performance such
as these, one can only leave the show desperate for more from both of these
bands. For all of them lucky Hellfest 2015 ticket holders, Wovenhand will be
bringing their show to the Valley on Friday. As to Marriages, one can only hope
the band comes back quickly for another set of European dates. So far this gig
easily reaches my top 3 concerts of 2015.
Robin
Thank you to Vince from Kongfuzi booking,
Sébastien from Differ-ant, Sargent House as well as the band Marriages for their
support and hospitality without which neither this article nor the interview
would've been possible.
This gig was
brought to us by My Favorite.
Be sure to check out and subscribe to My Favorite Booking for updates on
their upcoming shows
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| Marriages Setlist |
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