Christopher Nosnibor
After almost a decade, Maybeshewill are calling it a day. But they’re having one final farewell jaunt, with a sold-out tour. To make each show that bit more special, they’ve picked as openers local acts with whom they’ve built associations with over the course of their career, which has seen them develop a loyal fan-base.
Tonight’s openers, worriedaboutsatan show just how much they’ve evolved over the course of their career to date. When I first encountered them, supporting Her Name is Calla at The Holy Trinity Church in Leeds, they were weaving ethereal, atmospheric electronica, characterised by delicate, glitchy beats. Subtle and understated, the music of their early releases was neither dance nor post-rock. Tonight, manipulating material from 2015 comeback album Even Temper, they’re still making music that doesn’t readily fit in any specific category, and while there’s still a keen attention to texture and detail, they deliver a much bolder sound. While Gavin Miller sculpts fractal guitar lines, opposite him (they play in the centre of the stage, facing one another, side-on to the audience), Thomas Ragsdale bangs out hefty beats and molecule-rearranging bass frequencies. It’s cerebral, but also physical. The set’s well-sequenced, building throughout, with brief passages where they pull back accentuating the huge bass drops too maximum effect. My skin itches all over with the resonant vibrations. Magnificent.
worriedaboutsatan
You Slut! have established themselves as purveyors of ultra-mathy instrumental post-rock dominated by big, gutsy guitars. The name doesn’t really fit the form, but I guess it’s memorable. To describe their compositions as technical would be an understatement: the guitar lines are so complex and the fretwork so fast, it often sounds like they’re on the constant brink of collapse. With no riff being pushed for more than a handful of bars, they create music that’s in a state of perpetual flux. The musical dexterity is impressive, but the downside is that there’s practically nothing to get a handle on. There are some great little passages and some great riffs, but they’ve leaped on to the next little section, and the next, before it’s even had time to register. They’re lively on stage, and yes, they do deliver an energetic, noisy, noodly racket which is good fun, at least for the first 15 minutes or so, but after a time it all gets a bit much.
Maybeshewill know exactly how to get the balance right. Having first caught them live (I do believe on the same bill as andsoiwatchyoufromafar back in 2009), I feel qualified to comment on just how much they’ve evolved and expanded, both sonically and in terms of their performance, but without having ever lost sight of their core values. In many ways representative of their understated progress over the years, there are no heroics tonight, no incongruous song and dance. Maybeshewill do what they do best, and let the music do the talking. And they really do put on a show: the lights are intense, the sound is crisp, clear, bright and loud and they give it 100% from the first chord. They’ve become considerably more animated on-stage over the years, and tonight, the stage is a place of nonstop movement as they crank out the riffs amidst a maelstrom of mathy noodles, doodling synths and well-placed samples.
Maybeshewill
They’re as tight as hell, and deliver by far and away the best performance I’ve seen. It’s sad to see them go, but they’re certainly bowing out on a high.
