Esben And The Witch

Thursday 11 March 2011. Empty Bottle. Before even the band starts, there are the clues that tell you at once how well this gig will imprint. I see Sarah and William, then Aimee, Ruben. Musicians, DJs and friends of that I (presume to) share a kind of short-hand with. These are goths that I see at death-rock and shoe-gaze themed nights, industrial nights, and vegan restaurant. We like the same music and the specific web of culture it attracts. Some thing at Empty Bottle got described as "haunting and eerie" and I had to go and investigate like the stoners at Ghost Adventures.....Travel Channel? No? Never mind. Seeing my fellow investigators inclined me to like further Esben And The Witch. What gets so many goths in one place? EATW has the dark trip-hop atmosphere with the random post-punk sprint and the casual, lazy psychedelic delivery of Rachel Davies. Hell I could go on. So I do the usual ritual of not over-loading on researching the band. I want the live experience to be the principal means of imprint. I see half a video of whatever band before and that kind of decides it. So they set up and I notice the one drum thing in the front. To me that means hmm, crazy tribal drumming. And yeah, that's what I got.

Esben And The Witch are from Brighton, UK. They were in Chicago to promote the CD Violet Cries. Eerie and Haunting are but a beginning. This is Warpaint tripping on acid in The Lake District of England. You are gonna have some cool trips and some scary trips in the land of Coleridge and Wordsworth. Rachel Davies sounds just like Warpaint, all chill and lazy. Only she trips on a different world, and can take her sweet time describing it. E&Th W are great at creating this dangerous, faerie land sound scape. Each song has it's own sonic atmosphere that is used for various means. In Argyria, you are held in wonder of it as you jog along the shore. Before Rachel says a word you are OK to follow her pace to a sprint. And after you spent this cardio exploring this world pretty and quaint, that's when they stop trying to startle the tourist. That's when they draw blood. This world, the sound of it is often chill, repetitive until familiar, that is one way they hook you, with shallow water then plunge! You can almost tune out exactly what Rachel says in Light Streams if instead you focus on that lazy delivery. The dread comes when Rachel's voice corners you alone. The coolness of Rachel's voice is that she can sweet talk you with sound, empower you with it and scare with the meaning later when you are reading the words. Or she can deliver the chill with her voice alone. Dancing to Chorea and Warpath in Procession at Late Bar is different from reading, or really listening.

The full empowerment of Marching Song you feel later when you read the lyrics. This is the song that sold me the whole album and set me up for the rest. It sold me the band, everything. But the moment has me right by the stage, when Marching Song was second. Hair covers her face. Rachel Davies beats this drum with ritual shamanic passion, and holds your short attention span hostage. I mean no one that was in there was looking up their messages on their cell phones. It was that brilliant. Rachel drifts to the back of the stage and beats the drum sticks together like she's imposing a rhythm on her heartbeat. It's three pulses Rachel hits the last the hardest. You feel empowered to see her perform. You feel empowered and familiar with the mystery invoked. So, I found myself stomping to the song as well. Most of the memory of the concert is locked into that song. Everything else is just fragments that a narrative pieces together later. Just to see this singular drum in front of the stage is dramatic, tribal. They don't put it out for nothing. And so Rachel hits those drums, the cymbals in just the right way that I will discover later when I'm hearing it. I think if you like bands like Telepathe, Bat For Lashes, School Of Seven Bells, and yes Warpaint, this band deserves a look. And do it before they do on The Vampire Diaries,or some damn show like that. I could not stay for their entire set. An urgent matter I had to take care of. But I felt not as if I missed out on the band. I was fortunate to have the chance to see them at all.

ZIg