Venue:
Town Hall, Birmingham
Date: 29/11/2016
We had front row balcony seats to experience what can only be described as modern chamber music. Agnes was backed by three extremely talented female players. On percussion was Belgian, Catherine de Biasio (a relative of Melanie?) who also played sax and clarinet and sang harmonies/backing vocals. There were two cellists, both of whom played other instruments and were live looping and singing. They were Charlotte Danhier (who played Mellotron and ukelele and is also Belgian) and Kristina Koropecki (who also played autoharp and percussion and is Canadian).
The set started with Red Virgin Soil, an instrumental propelled by plucked cello strings and with Catherine playing clarinet. The multi-instrumental all-female band comprised two cellists and a percussionist as well as Agnes. Agnes was stood at the front playing electronic keyboards (mostly with a natural piano sound), but she had also brought along her own living room upright piano which was at the back of the stage. This was mainly used for a couple of beautiful instrumentals and songs from Philharmonics, such as the title track and one of the encores, Riverside.
The set was mostly drawn from Citizen of Glass, and demonstrated the strength of that album, which is a step change from Philharmonics and Aventine. I think they played about eight tracks from Citizen, probably four from Aventine and three from Philharmonics.
In an interview, Agnes confessed that when recording Citizen of Glass, which is a very multi-layered recording, she paid no heed to how it could be performed live. Clearly an enormous amount of work has gone into creating the live arrangements, with the use of live loops to build up those layers and the music came across with a conviction and a depth that both surprised and delighted me. On ‘Familiar’ she used a vocal treatment to get a deeper, masculine tone, which provided a contrast to the all female harmonies on the other songs.
None of this is music to get up and dance to, but it does lift up your soul. Nothing was raw or dissonant, but neither was it sweet or saccharine. Somehow Agnes and her multi-instrumental, multi-talented band played music that struck a perfect chord throughout the evening.
The audience:
A mixture of young and old. Perhaps more oldies up in the comfy seats.
It made me think..
This is modern music that stands on its own two feet.
Bugger. (I had tickets but couldn’t go……)
Lovely review, Mike. Thanks. Citizen Of Glass sounds better with every listen, especially now I’ve edited out Grasshopper. Sounds like a fabulous concert. Is her voice as pure and perfect in real life?
Catherine comes from the same town as Mélanie. She is in a French singing duo called Blondy Brownie (she’s the blonde, Aurélie Muller the brunette). I don’t know if they are related.
Near perfect vocals all night, from all the musicians. I don’t have the same problem with Grasshopper as you do, but it isn’t the strongest song on the album, that’s for sure.
Excellent review, Mike. I was particularly impressed that you remembered the names of all the musicians in this very fine band. I was so impressed by the way they played together that I mailed her management to find out who they were.
Was there a support act? Here in Stockholm it was Lisa Hannigan. I’d never heard of her but left a fan. A very pleasant complement to the headliner.
Being a serious reviewer and not a nogood boyo like myself, you neglect to mention that elegant, stylish Agnes is a sizzling hottie: she reminded me of vintage Danish gangster’s moll. The sort of gal that Bachelor Johny Cool would run into at an illegal all night party. “Whisky a wah wah!”
Must confess I had to look up the names of the band on Agnes’ Facebook page. Can’t remember the name of the support, but he was a singer songwriter with a guitar and was quite good, but perhaps a little too wordy/worthy.
First time I’ve logged in ages, so I’ll chip in my sixpenneth…..
Sat in the row behind Mike, so can confirm the gorgeousness of the sound. Never heard cellos played like that before. The players really were working hard, tap dancing on the effects pedals whilst singing and plucking/bowing at the same time. Impressive multitasking……
The support was a guy called LA Salami. As Mike said, a bit wordy/worthy, but some interesting lyrics. Listened to his album on Spotify a couple of days later. Better than I was expecting.
I went to the gig at the Albert Hall in Manchester the night after. A review would be almost exactly the same. It was engrossing, enchanting. The sound was perfect and the level of musicianship exemplary.
The Albert Hall as a venue is superb as well. A converted church with good acoustics and a nice feel to it.