Handsome Furs – 93 Feet East, London 08/04/09

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Photographs by Anika Mottershaw

Well, this was certainly a show of two halves. On the one hand you had a band that encompassed pretty much everything live music should be; on the other, the exact opposite. Truly, it was an evening of emotional highs and lows.

Providing the lows was Dan Smith, the kind of “alternative” music act you’d imagine being endorsed by Simon Cowell. Forty-five minutes seemed to stretch to eternity as he blandly delivered a never-ending set that consisted entirely of anodyne pastiches of much better bands. In fairness, the guy’s musicianship was solid and he wasn’t bereft of a couple of potentially interesting ideas, but they wilted like flowers in the path of a blowtorch thanks to dreary songwriting, a poorly utilised backing band and the charisma of wallpaper paste. Talentless bands are ten-a-penny, but in a sense this was even worse; a band that had the elements of something I’d normally really enjoy (strings, loop pedals etc) but nonetheless was so torturously dull I wanted to claw my eyes out. Plus, his voice sounded like the muppet from Scouting For Girls, which made me want to punch God. Frankly, such passionless, airbrushed dross deserves to be consigned to the ninth circle of Hell, or failing that, Radio 2.

Thankfully, Handsome Furs were on hand to remind us how live performances should be done. Until now, the husband-and-wife duo have been one of the minor offshoots of that incestuous web of Montreal bands that includes the likes of Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown and Frog Eyes. They then released the superb Face Control, whose heady mix of distorted guitar, dark-tinged synths and killer hooks play perfectly to the strengths of Dan Boeckner and perhaps stands as the most consistent album he’s released under any monicker. It also works wonderfully live, as this short-but-incredibly-sweet set was testament to.

Dan’s voice is as perfectly suited to the rock genre as any I’ve heard; howling like a man possessed, it’s so full of genuine passion you’re scared he’s going to annihilate his vocal chords, and his guitar playing shares the same manic fervour. His wife Alexis is no less intense- bouncing up and down adding synths and effects to the mix, she recalls the boundless energy of Bjork. Only one song from debut Plague Park makes it into the set, but the strength of the new material ensures this is no great loss. ‘Radio Kaliningrad’ and ‘Evangeline’ are particularly savage, despite the slightly bassy sound mix taking the edge off the guitars.

Most importantly though, it’s clear the both of them are having a whale of a time and gazing around me, it’s clear the audience are too. Handsome Furs love this city, and the feeling’s more than mutual.