“Hail the new puritans! Righteous maelstrom!” – The Fall, ‘New Puritan’, 1980 (as always heard by me)
After the show, it was agreed that the support band – the mighty, the tumultuous, the life-affirming Radio Anorak – are closer to the spirit of The Velvet Underground than the main band – the otherworldly, the mesmeric, the primal The New Eves. It was suggested that Radio Anorak’s lanky, languid, confusingly direct singer channels (in places) Lou Reed, even if the sonic dissonance underneath – the guitars being shaken, rattled and treated with loving disrespect – is more reminiscent of towering Welsh insurgents Datblygu; the approach to the mundane and the surreal more reminiscent of obscure naive experimentalist Brisbane outfit The Deadnotes (back when they had a weirdo English hack on guest vocals) or perhaps Porridge Radio. The first song simply counted back from a high number. Other songs mentioned shopping expeditions and didn’t. The band were simply terrific, honey – there was a sense (as with Tropical Fuckstorm being preceded by Maria Iskariot last year), that boy oh boy our feral Brighton sweethearts The New Eves must be confident indeed in their own powers to follow such an inspirational, frantic, energising opening act.
Anyway, The Velvet Underground comparison for The New Eves feels like patriarchal journalism. A violin and a cello player in the band? Must sound like a male band! Must be the Velvets! Whoever was DJing called it far closer. I swear I heard The Ex, and straight after New Eves finished their set with a coruscating and insurgent version of the Velvets’ ‘White Light/White Heat’ (oh… OK!), out sounded The Raincoats’ still blisteringly appropriate version of ‘Lola’. “Lou Reed would have hated that,” remarks a fellow punter sagely about the New Eves’ encore. (What? Not linear enough?) “John Cale would have loved it though.” Back on the merch stall, the ladies from The New Eves are already present, selling freshly handmade badges (all donations going straight to Palestine relief), screen-printed T-shirts and the new album.
Did I mention the new album yet? It is my go-to listening on the train, alongside gospel compilations, Datblygu and recordings of myself. Transportive.
Yes, a medieval Ut. Very much their own selves, though.
This review is a ramble, a morning-after stream-of-consciousness, in deference to Radio Anorak. ‘White Light’ sees Radio Anorak pulled back on stage; earlier, the end-of-tour buddies pulled The New Eves onstage for their encore, where they whooped up and down and layered mighty three-part shouty harmonies, Violet dancing round in the shadows, chaos and beauty reigning supreme.
Kate plays bass in both bands… afterwards, we wonder at the amount of stamina required to be doing that for an entire tour. Wonderful, though.
There are new songs. There are old songs. There is ‘Rivers Run Red’. There is that final one where Ella picks up her flute for a while before the band takes on a trippy many-faceted journey through futures and pasts, their own senses of being. It strikes me on many occasions that one of the reasons for The New Eves’ “uniqueness” (terrible word), their strangeness, what separates them from the pack is Ella’s drumming: stood up, primal, forceful, never crossing her arms and when she sings she really does recall the wonder and challenge of Eve Libertine (Crass). Yet, you could point to the other three members and say precisely the same: Nina stage-front and Violet stage-right channelling shades of Richard Thompson, Anne Clark and Television when they pick up their electric guitars: and yet, it’s the harmonies and direct point/counterpoint that always kill me when I hear their songs, the depth, those stringed instruments dancing their own dance, the bass.
New single ‘Red Brick’ is ravishing live, way better than the recorded version (which of course might yet grow on me).
I don’t know. Man, two of my favourite bands playing the same night, the same show. Fucking phenomenal.