EFTERKLANG | LIVE REVIEW
The Globe, Cardiff
Tue 22 Feb
★★★★
words / pics: ROBIN WILKINSON
Screening a film featuring performances by your own band instead of a support act, as Efterklang did tonight: the high-point of narcissism, or a pragmatic move by a thrifty band looking to take home a greater share of the ticket receipts? I’d go for the latter, as despite two members of Danish complicated indie band Efterklang wearing the sort of ironic moustaches only normally seen on Wes Anderson characters and American Apparel models, their performance tonight was high on earnest musicianship and short on rockstar ego. Indeed, at one point the bassist fled the stage mid-song to return with a towel, frantically mopping up some beer he’d just spilt in an orgy of ecstatic foot-tapping: a typically conscientious display of un-rock and roll behaviour.
Still, it’s a slow start to the evening – watching video footage of a band you’re about to see, in a hot, packed venue, and surrounded by the sort of fervent fans who respond to any overheard conversation in a manner normally reserved for the defilement of religious texts.
When Efterklang take to the stage in the flesh, it is in what they describe as their “rock’n’roll” lineup: seven members, without the revolving cast of brass sections, string-sections, and as their film shows us, children scrunching up balls of newspaper sections, that have accompanied previous performances. Despite the still large number of musicians present, Efterklang display an admirable economy of parts. Their particular brand of orchestral indie could easily become turgid, but the arrangements are surprisingly sparse for such a large group, each instrument being given its own space to shine.
Casper Clausen, front of stage on vocals, moustache, snare-drum and sampler, marshals the band through a tight, percussion-heavy performance. Though you imagine that a group of musicians as accomplished as this could jam their way through a Grateful Dead concert, their live sound draws heavily on their most recent album Magic Chairs; leaner and tauter than their previous work, and with their classical sensibilities channelled through a more traditional band set-up and song structures. Midway through the gig, Clausen announces that this will be the final Efterklang tour for some time. As the seven members line-up across the stage and take a final bow, the packed Globe audience makes their sadness known.
