East London's Humane The Moon tore through the Camden venue with heat and heart.
Photos: Anna Jenkins Delf | Words: Isabel Kilevold
In the peak of London's heatwave, Humane The Moon took the stage at Camden's Elephant's Head. Harsh stage lights cut through the cramped venue, catching every streak of sweat running down the temples of the five-piece band. Yet the moment the first note broke through the speakers, neither the band nor their audience showed any signs of being dazed by the heat.
The show comes as part of the band's 'Test Launch' tour and they bring unconstrained energy from the moment they lift off with 'Human Error'. The crowd suitably warmed up, they followed up with their most recent release, 'Watch Don't Learn'. With this track, the band's experimentation with dissonance amid a textured, driven sound established the atmosphere of the set.
The band's songs experiment with elements of punk, grunge, and indie rock. The transition is fluid between gritty and sharp as they merge pace with intimacy. 'Tear It Down' lands like a slow collapse as songwriter and vocalist, Max Hanley, sings of self-erasure and rage with the jarring quality of a voice both strangled and defiant.
The band performs a cover of 'Agony' by Yung Lean. It is a surprising choice for a group of east London indie rockers but they pull it off with pure brilliance. Hanley's vocals are raw, his knuckles turning white as his grip tightens around the microphone stand. His vocal delivery creates a moment of visceral emotion that lingers in the room, while the backing percussion shapes a subdued foundation to which jangling guitars add texture. It is hazy and hypnotic, the band unmistakably making the song their own.
The performance is tight, but there are moments throughout the set where the band could risk a little more. While the clarity of Hanley's vocals and the sharp guitar riffs demonstrate their musical aptitude, certain tracks call for more grit. Given the band's natural stage presence, they have plenty of leeway to be more adventurous.
The energy picks up with a feverish pulse on 'Dugout', where the audience drowns out the vocals. In the moment of collective catharsis the band cannot hide their grins as the crowd echoes the lyrics. There is an innocence to their excitement that contradicts the sonically charged melodies and fervent, introspective lyrics.
Humane The Moon lean into the tension between the opposing forces of their vigorous live performance and the intimate sentiment of their raw lyrics. They refuse to be confined by genre, expectation, or image, experimenting with contrasts and contradictions. The intricately paced, unpolished sound invites the crowd to let loose, while the honest lyrics cut through the noise. In this sense the name of the band seems an appropriate contradiction: the juxtaposition of the earth's lifeless, distant satellite and the tenderness that defines the humane.
The final song on the setlist hits with urgent percussion and a strong bassline. Hearing the layered guitar interplay feels like eavesdropping on something private, igniting a sense of mischief. The clarity of Hanley's vocals, paired with the grainy delivery of the lyrics, adds to the a of deliberate contradiction, confounding the audience's expectations. The bridge of the track exhibits the musical ability of the instrumentalists before the final lines of the song are relinquished through gritted teeth.
The band does not get the chance to exit the stage before the demand for an encore is deafening in the crammed pub. They end the set with an energetic performance of 'Ozymandias'. The track, named after Shelley's sonnet of power and decay, channels disillusionment into something soaring. The last lyric, "get up to no good", stays with the crowd as a defiant call into the sweltering evening in Camden.
Humane The Moon's Test Launch left the crowd orbiting somewhere between introspection and euphoria. In the haze of sweat, sound, and lights, the east London band proved they are not just aiming for escape velocity, they have already broken through the atmosphere.
No comments:
Post a Comment