Liars – The Scala, London 16/10/12

-
Photograph by Siamak Amini

In their predictable unpredictability, Liars’ sets are quite like Liars’ albums. The trio don’t confine their more experimental leanings to either their recorded nor live output, which can lead to a feeling that you’re never quite seeing the finished product, or hearing a band who have completely arrived at wherever they want to be. In the eyes of a few, this makes Liars somewhat hit and miss.

There are the indisputably brilliant parts (Drums Not Dead and the shows that accompanied it saw them arguably at their peak), and moments of less inspiration (the disappointingly back to basics Liars and the lacklustre gigs played after the great Sisterworld LP that found them in a limbo between being a rock band and whatever it was they were to become next). Not knowing what you’re going to get is a great thing when approaching a band, but as a veteran of Liars shows both mind blowing and shambolic, I approach them as both an apprehensive and massive fan.

From the start – when the three suit-wearing Liars line up behind keyboards at the front of the stage to play a new song that sounds like a malfunctioning Erasure tune – you get the impression that it’s all change yet again. This year’s excellent WIXIW has seen the band retreat from live instrumentation and in to a world of murky electronica that now sees them probably more at home on Mute’s roster than ever before. To recreate it live, they largely jettison not only Aaron Hemphill’s formidable textural skill as a guitarist, but also the drumming of Julian Gross – one of the most talented, underappreciated drummers in modern alternative music. Instead of doing what they do best, both are employed on keyboards and samplers, letting loose a sound that relies heavily on a backing track. It would be tempting to scathingly call very little of it ‘live’, if it weren’t still such a spectacle – you could play a CD of WIXIW over the Scala’s massive speakers and watch Angus Andrew’s approximately 12 foot frame swing back and forth dribbling, not singing a note, and it’d still be mesmerising.

Though this is very much a WIXIW show, things do become slightly more organic from these quite clinical beginnings. Eventually returning to their instruments, Liars perform in front of a long film that stars the band themselves messing around in their rehearsal studio, sometimes eating food, sometimes moving furniture, sometimes playing a song (which leads to the curious sensation of watching a live band play a song in front of a video of the same people playing a different song, in silence).

People were digging the cold, electronic vibes of the likes of ‘WIXIW’ and ‘No. 1 Against The Rush’, but it’s only when they launch in to Drums Not Dead material – with an almighty “YEAHHH!” from Angus – that people start to conclude that this is going to be one of those really good Liars shows. All the songs played from it tonight, from the confrontational rumbles of ‘Let’s Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack’ to the contemplative balladry of ‘The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack’, confirm it to still be their masterpiece – the one moment in their career thus far where Liars sounded years ahead of anyone else. And that includes you, Animal Collective.

Apart from their now sadly disowned first record, tonight’s set draws from every album in their back catalogue, pointing out that there might be a thread to trace through it all after all – even if they are one of alt. music’s most thrillingly, consistently mutating bands. We get a rabid take on ‘Scarecrows On A Killer Slant’ from Sisterworld, a romp through ‘Plaster Casts of Everything’ from Liars, and even a few from the early millennium witch-obsessed terror They Were Wrong, So We Drowned (man, I’d forgotten how much fun it is to shout “we’re doomed, we’re doomed!” over and over along with ‘We Fenced Each Other’s Gardens With The Bones Of Our Own’).

Despite the disparity in sound across those records, as a set it all hangs together remarkably well, and shows that Liars now have the depth to their body of work necessary to carry off a brilliant, varied live show. By the end, I’m screaming “Blood! Blood! Blood!” to ‘Broken Witch’ with a smile on my face and my fist in the air like I’m at a massive arena show. Liars, it seems, are in a great place at the moment.