Black Country, New Road delivered an insatiable live performance on Saturday night, broadcast live from the Queen Elizabeth Centre, as part of Southbank’s live series. Their live set is fast, electronic and frantic, everything BCNR claims to be.
The stage is set with the seven-piece band, and rolling stock footage on the screens behind them. Stock imagery is also projected onto the walls of the venue, appearing distorted because of the grooves and soundproofing structures. Distorted is an adjective that fits quite well to describe Black Country, New Road – an amalgamation of passion and brass that results in an odd but surprisingly pleasant sound.
Each new track was met with a title card on screen detailing the song title. This meant that new fans were able to keep up and follow along easily. Black Country, New Road were formed in 2018, and are currently signed to Ninja Tune. They released their new EP in February of this year, titled For The First Time. In December of 2020, they performed alongside Black Midi, in aid of The Windmill in Brixton. The venue in South London is currently at risk of closure, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
Beginning with ‘Introduction,’ the band establish themselves quickly onstage as noise-makers. With a brass-heavy beginning, the track sounds both dreamy and heavy at the same time. There are some high-pitched, twinkling pianos added into the mix, and the use of seven instrumentalists creates an almost orchestral feel to the band’s sound. Their music feels whole and heavily layered, whilst at the same time appearing very serious. The track begins to sound much more jittery, with fast electronic synthesiser beeping. The addition of a droning bass into the mix makes the whole piece feel frantic, although the music is the soundtrack to a high-speed Indiana Jones chase scene. Footage of money and businessmen run across the screen, adding an ominous feeling that whilst you are sat at home, you’re being watched.
I’ve never been to a live show that has featured a violinist as part of their ensemble. With the observation of these instrumental features, I feel that I’m learning more about live shows that I first expected. Speaking of seemingly irrelevant details, the band have some ten or so members in the theatre’s audience, socially distanced of course. Although it’s quiet, their cheering and clapping between songs make for a nice transition, rather than just silence.
‘Athens, France’ begins with its iconic bassline, leading vocalist Isaac Wood into his spiel. His warbling and unhinged vocal sounds have found a home in the hearts of their fans, something that surprisingly doesn’t take too long to get used to. His almost monotonous vocal sounds contrast with the soft and increasing presence of strings, and midway through the song, it feels relatively calm:
“I have learned so little from all I lost in 2018”
I would consider ‘Athens, France’ to be their most mainstream sounding song of the set, probably fitting in quite nicely to some indie-rock playlists. With a big, lovely saxophone melody in the bridge of the track, the melody rises and falls, developing a sombre mood to the whole performance. The last part of the track that doesn’t feature any vocals feels as though it could be the auditory accompaniment to the Olympic Closing Ceremony. The song feels youthful and almost celebratory of something.
Footage of moving escalators fills all three screens, as the beginning of ‘Science Fair’ begins. If you isolated the bass guitar and percussion from this track, you can imagine David Byrne doing his Once in a Lifetime marching-walk. The added strings develop an eerie melody, fitting extremely well to the lyrics discussing someone setting fire to things at the Cambridge Science Fair. Wood’s vocals become faster throughout the track, and the added hi-hat into the mix creates a sense of urgency and importance to finishing the song. The mix features a highly distorted and loud guitar that sounds a lot like just random noise, but is immaculately similar to that of the recorded studio track. The same can be said for the saxophone melody, squeaking and squawking throughout. The whole track waxes and wanes, tricking you into thinking that the song has finally calmed. The high pitched violins are straight out of a horror film, iniquitous and rising to a peak.
None of the band looks like they’re having a very nice time on stage, whether that be for nerves, or the fact that they’re concentrating so hard on performing to an empty room. Exclamatory lyrics do catch the listener’s attention, as though it is possible to take your eyes away from such a captivating performance:
“Okay today I hide away / But tomorrow I take the reins”
Their music is certainly organised, and if you listened to the stream alongside the recorded studio tracks, you would find a heavy similarity in the noise. Although each instrument clambers into the discussion, the experimental style is far from improvised. Lyrically, Black Country, New Road express fairly in-depth and confusing narratives at times. Referring to the matriarch in your family as ‘mother’ is juxtaposed humorously with the references to a ‘NutraBullet’ in the kitchen. Come on, which century are we supposed to be living in?
In ‘Track X,’ we find that Black Country, New Road are eager to namedrop the bands they’re affiliated with, through the lyric: “I told you I loved you, in front of Black Midi.” I suppose this makes for an audible Easter egg for the fans of both bands, but does come off as though they’ve made a bet to mention each other in their songs. Through the performance of this song, we also find out the reason for the audience in the venue, who function as a group choir for the performance. If you thought the sound of 7 musicians was interesting, then the addition of their vocal ensemble is something to be believed. The singers added a nice sense of unveiling wonder to the show, but the following vocal features don’t have the same impact as the first time. The harmonies are cool and refreshing, bringing a sense of unity to the show.
Beneath all the distortion, the exclamatory singing and wailing brass is a heavily rehearsed band, and whether they’re your taste or not, you’ve got to admit that these guys put on a show. Sections of their songs would make for an excellent expansion of the Poirot soundtrack, but I can understand it’s not for everyone. My main takeaway from the performance was how loud the whole show was. My Mac was on level two of its 16 bar volume range, and even that was loud. Although the strings can be quite unnerving, the vocals often striking, this band know the definition of a crescendo. Perhaps they’re stuck in the days of their Music GCSE, or maybe they’ve just targeted an incredibly particular niche.
Setlist:
- Introduction
- Mark’s Theme
- Instrumental
- Athens, France
- Science Fair
- Sunglasses
- Track X
- Opus
- Bread Song
- Basketball Shoes
