This show is advertised as Haiku Salut - Lamp Show and first sight of the stage confirms this description to be accurate, as connected by a spaghetti of cables, there are laptops, various electronic gizmos, percussion, brass and stringed instruments and approximately 20 living room lamps giving the impression that Arcade Fire are about to perform in the vintage lighting section at B&Q (other DIY/hardware shops are available).
Support comes from a three-piece from Bristol, Jilk, who play instrumentals with lots of looping effects with added violin and trombone. Their final track is a collaborative single 'Periscopes' they released with Haiku Salut earlier this year, the two groups combine for a building, floaty and brass-coated instrumental reminiscent of the long lost Flotation Toy Warning. The announcement at the start of this track will the last spoken word from the stage tonight.
After a short break the main set starts and it's a stunning performance. The three members of Haiku Salut (Louise Croft, Sophie and Gemma Barkerwood from the Derbyshire Dales) perform a set of instrumentals with keyboards, piano accordion, snare and bass drums, acoustic guitars and ukulele, parts of which are cleverly looped to form the repeating backing tracks, which allows the track to build and grow as it progress and more instruments are added. All of the instruments are played live by the three piece, which involves impressive musical talent and on-stage choreography as they continually move across the stage without colliding, or more than one member picking up the same instrument. At one point I counted five individual instruments being played by the musicians.
Adding to the spectacle is the aforementioned lamp show. A fourth member, half hidden in the shadows stage left appears to program the vintage lamps to glow, pulse, flick on and off and fade in time with the sounds generated by the band.
Tracks from their two albums are played, highlights include 'Bleak and Beautiful (All Things)' first track of recently released album 'Etch & Etch Deep' which builds into a lovely accordion and brass passage and would fit perfectly into Yann Tiersen's Amelie soundtrack. The pretty, tinkling piano at the start of 'Foreign Pollen' is looped to allow the big, bulky brass and drums to take over.
Whilst there's no interaction with the audience apart from a collective bow and wave at the end , it's far from a cold performance as the warm, lifting instrumentals are all played with loads of feeling to a totally engrossed audience.
If you're feeling jaded with watching a band plodding through a replication of their latest album, Haiku Salut's performance will lift your spirits as they provide an enchanting alternative and remind you again of the wonderful possibilities of live musical performance.
Alisdair Whyte
