Metro is scummy, very scummy.
I don’t think any band sound good here, regardless of talent. Such is the case tonight, as Miracle Fortress is being bound and gagged by the atmosphere, a sweaty warm-beer-in-a-can mix of body odor, overzealous bass and faint vocal pickups.
Yet, this is a band that thrives in the periphery, a collective (based around the one Graham van Pelt of course) that takes what it can from all sides to weave together something more beautiful than the sum of its parts, and such is the case at Metro tonite.Van Pelt and company knows the venue is a handicap, the emotions stemming from their faces as they waft through each dreamy, reverberated note emphasize that, but each song is making the most of the situation.
Van Pelt’s scholastic wooing dominate ‘Have You Seen In Your Dreams’ and ‘Five Roses’, while the dual percussion set-up buttressed with fluttering keyboard pecks, guitar jabs and bass lines provide constant substance, one beaming with a sense of purpose that cannot be silenced by situation.
Seven songs, twenty-five minutes and two expensive cans of Red Stripe later and Miracle Fortress is done, packed up and ready to go home. Being their last European date for now, the yearning to be home for the Holidays and take a break unravel, as the encore is short, very short.
Regardless, it is equally serene, as regardless of the shit venue, one whose intrusion permeates tonite, this is beautiful, endearing music. Nothing can change that.
