CHVRCHES – Live At Village Underground, London

A spectacular set of winning electro-pop...

In six months more people have demonstrated an interest in CHVRCHES than the C of E (or indeed, the Kirk) could ever hope for in this godless, heathen age.

Last weekend they played Alexandra Palace with Everything Everything and Two Door Cinema Club (reviewed), but tonight they face the challenge of a room full of hipsters in this brick Shoreditch temple.

The rites begin with the kickdrums of 'Lies', foreboding bass tones that recall early Gary Numan, spiky harmonic stabs driving the track forward while Lauren Mayberry dons her dominatrix hat to instruct us: “You got to show me / Both knees, skin and bone / Clothe me, throw me, move me”.

There is delicious ambiguity in her lyrics. She radiates fragility, but is bold in her demands: “I can feed your dirty mind / Like I know, like I know what you want.” 


CHVRCHES do more than aggressive beats and sexual undertones, however. 'We Sink' drops the bombast and places keyboard player/Maschine wrangler Martin Doherty on the mic, revealing an intimate voice from beneath the baseball cap on an almost plaintive pop song that rises from clattering synths. 'Now Is Not The Time' wouldn't sound out of place in a John Hughes film, all synthetic bells, lush strings and minor key cooing.

Doherty and keyboards/guitarist Iain Cook are fairly grizzled music industry veterans old enough to remember the '80s, while Mayberry comes to the decade's endlessly popular tones via the route of revivalism. Her stage nerves have slowly thawed, and as the Tron-esque grid of red lasers carves up the stage she stabs at them with her hands, joking that all those red dots would be a “nightmare for cats”.

They also laugh off their most unlikely recent internet hype – a cover of the Game Of Thrones theme. “You think you're just taking the piss, and then next minute the internet melts down,” she says.

Not every track is a hit. CHVRCHES work best when the synths are distressed, dirty, with Mayberry's voice an angelic foil. Nowhere better is this demonstrated than 'Recover', which when it appears finally moves the crowd.

A spectacular slice of winning electro-pop that could inspire religious fervour in the hardest heart, its icy charm plays off against a throbbing bassline and Mayberry's Glaswegian vowels, where she pleads “I'll give you woan more chance / Say you can change our heart / Where you can teak what you need / And you doan' need me”.

Closing with 'The Mother We Share', the band returns for an encore – all smiles, no electro-posing here – for Lauren to deliver, as promised, her karaoke version of Lil' Kim's 'Lady Marmalade' rap, and Prince's 'I Would Die 4 U', which in the moment could have been written for her.

Channelling the Purple One's amorousness, the darkness and noise of Depeche Mode and Tubeway Army and the Nordic loneliness that suffuses Robyn's finest tracks, CHVRCHES weave quality influences into fine songs.

And, in the elfin, wide-eyed Mayberry, they have law graduate, award-winning journalist, intriguing lyricist, compelling singer and (inevitably) future infatuation of millions wrapped into one tiny package – at whose tiny feet the pop world will surely soon lie.

Words and photos: Michael Parker

Get the best of Clash on your iPhone – download the app here

-
Join the Clash mailing list for up to the minute music, fashion and film news.