Katatonia, Alcest and Junius at Talking Heads

Having seen Every Time I Die at Talking Heads very recently, I was incredibly excited for Katatonia. They have such a huge sound that is so well-suited to being heard live. The prospect of hearing them in a small room with low ceilings was an instant ticket purchase (in spite of the £3.20 booking fee for two tickets. That hurt a bit). I've spent a month looking forward to layers of guitars; smooth, nuanced, intricate vocals and a powerful stage presence, listening to The Great Cold Distance from start-to-finish every day (even now, as I write this). The evening of trudging drums, world-weary vocals and beautiful, low guitars was to be the perfect coda to an awful day. But I think I'm too old for live music now. I'm not sure when this happened or if it has been something more gradual, but I just don't leave shows on a high any more. Getting punched in the head by people desperate to view the show through their smartphone's screen. Being pushed, stamped and sweated on by people intent on standing at the front for some reason. It all serves to sour the atmosphere before any mention is made of a band's performance. On paper, my "old man" is showing. Audience aside, there were other problems here. Junius are a band who obviously care about their live experience. I've never seen a support band pack their own lighting rig and take it off-stage when they're done. Coupled with the fogger that, during Katatonia's set, would bring the show to a complete standstill, their visuals were some of the best that I've ever seen in a small venue like this. They set the scene fantastically and were the band of the evening for me, even if the singer clearly couldn't hear his voice for much of the set. Alcest had a surprising amount to live up to at this point. It's my expectation that support acts exist to build to the main event. The second should be better and bring something more than the first. What Alcest brought, in spite of their enthusiastic reception, was inaudible vocals and ear-shattering drums. I'm not sure what they said to piss off the sound engineers, but it worked. The vocal levels were clearly configured for the forty-five seconds of screaming in their whole set (which were somehow just loud enough to sit on top of the drums and drown out absolutely everything). One of the worst-sounding shows I've ever heard, to the point that I still couldn't tell you what Alcest's vocalist's clean voice is like. It's clear now that I expected too much of Katatonia. This was the penultimate show of a two month tour at twenty songs per night. Jonas' voice was tired, gravelly and faltering through some of the more intricate lines. Vocals failed to the point that the hooks in every song I can remember were just gone; replaced with strained monotony. His bandmates, however, were energetic and accomplished, as though this was the first stop of the tour. The live production of the guitars was excellent, and all lead work was clear and technically proficient, but the show lost too much in the vocals to be saved overall. A shame and a disappointment for a performance I'd been really excited for. I'm honestly quite surprised that a band with over a decade of experience don't have the stamina for a two month tour. Fortunately, Talking Heads has a bar with decent cider on tap.