Tall Ships and Highasakite
Mercury Lounge
March 20, 2013
Last week, i was at the Mercury Lounge for the early show which featured British quartet Tall Ships and the Norwegian quintet Highasakite, making their Stateside debut. I somehow managed to catch the tail end of Tall Ships’ set but i was impressed – it had the angular quality of post punk and yet was very funky. And it was punctuated by an incredibly percussive section which had their lead singer, bent over and pounding a rhythm furiously into the wooden stage, as his bandmates drummed wildly. I kind of wished I caught the rest of their set – but hopefully i’ll catch them again.
Decorating the stage with several strings of light, and looking a little bit like they stepped out of a rendition of Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream, the five beautiful yet kind of shy (reserved may be a better word) Norwegian’s material bore a similarity to Danish act, Alcoholic Faith Mission – earnest, at times rousingly anthemic and filled with gorgeous harmonies. But unlike Alcoholic Faith Mission, Highasakite’s material focused quite a bit more on cool synths that reminded me 1980s synth pop. Still, their sound was gorgeous and I couldn’t help but be won over by their earnestness.
Tall Ships
Highasakite
For these photos and a few more from this night of music, check out the Flickr set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yankee32879/sets/72157633089644433/
