Tonight we had a special treat, post-rock rising stars Long Distance Calling are played a full “An Evening With ” concert in 013. No opener, just 2 hours of ambient complex bliss. On their last album, the formerly instrumental band decided to get vocals involved, and this led to some speculation on part of the live shows. Many fans were concerned the instrumental epochs the band was known for would be shoved aside by the new tunes with vocals. The new vocalist also made us very curious to see how he preformed. It’s one thing to sound good on record, but live is a completely different set of playing cards.

The first thing we noticed when the band started playing is they didn’t have their vocalist in a prominent place up front. He’s hidden behind the keys, synths and computer elements, with the guitars on the front of the stage. Another thing we were quite happy about is the mix of songs of the set. Instead of focusing on their newer work from their last album, they provided a good mix of older, instrumental songs, flowing seamlessly into newer songs with vocal elements. The two hour show was in two parts, with a short intermezzo between the first and second hour. The first part relied more on a little more edgy and up tempo set, with vocals coming in at different intervals. In the second set they mellowed out more and it felt more like a lengthy jam, where they wove several numbers together, including a brand new song. Vocalist, Martin Fischer, also got a somewhat bigger role to play in the second set. His vocal timbre fits well into the music and reminds a little of Brian Molko from Placebo and Alice in Chains original vocalist, Layne Staley. Where I can listen to this band for ever, it’s not for everyone and I can see how the use of almost the same chord schemes and tonalities can become a little dull. The music is more rhythm driven in it’s variations at times. These elements do mean they can seamlessly weave their music together, pulling the listener deeper and deeper into the world they sketch, almost becoming hypnotic. All in all, a very good gig and definitely a band worth looking out for.

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Set List:

Into the Black Wide Open

Inside The Flood

The Figrin D’an Boogie

Sundown Highway

Timebends

Black Paper Planes

How The Gods Kill (Danzig cover)

Jungfernflug

(Unknown) (new song)

Ductus (with extended middle section)

The Man Within

Arecibo (Long Distance Calling)

Metulsky Curse Revisited

Encore:

Apparitions

Long Distance Calling on Facebook

Words and photos by Susanne A. Maathuis