The beautiful Shepherds Bush Empire is the ideal venue for
Lord Huron to play in. Their songs suit the theatre space perfectly, but not in
the overblown and hammy ‘performing-arts’ way that the word theatre often connotes. Rather it is indicative
of the expressive depth and resonance that the best performances provide. Having
never seen Lord Huron live before the emotion that is sustained across the hour
and a half set is what strikes me most. From this point of view the live
reference points I’m reminded most of are sets from Sufjan Stevens, The
National and Arcade Fire, which is obviously a pretty good group to be a part
of. In terms of the music, the last two are similarly good comparisons, albeit
with more of an Americana/ Country inflection.
Without wishing to labour the analogy too much, the set
construction, both in terms of track order and set design, are reminiscent of a
play- the backdrop made up of pale, bare leafless trees accompanied by the cold
sound effects between songs set the tone (an apt tone too as our days are much more
quickly turning to nights in the UK…). Throughout this cohesive whole that is
created, there are however highlights punctuating the linear story. The first
of which comes with the one-two of ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ and ‘Lonesome Dreams’, the
latter particularly showing Lord Huron’s ability to combine touching sentiment
with classic songwriting.
‘The Ghost on the Shore’ is another nice moment- the dual
harmonica parts blending into a sound that no longer sounds like the instrument
at all, but something more eerie and piercing. Following on with this theme of
atypical instrumentation is the haunting theremin line of the impressive ‘Way
Out There’. Sandwiched between these two
is ‘The Birds Are Singing at Night’- the bird call sound effects surrounding
this song are perhaps the only moment where the ‘show’ rather than ‘concert’
aspect tends towards jumping the shark somewhat, but this is only a very minor
gripe.
The upbeat ‘Meet Me in the Woods’ is a welcome increase in
tempo, continued with the most stand-alone song of the night in the bluesy ‘The
World Ender’, complete with passionate red-lighting and the second biggest
dance along of the night. The occurrence of the biggest is not far away however
as the imperious ‘Fool For Love’ keeps people dancing and singing along to
their hearts content. With their vocal chords warmed up, the crowd warmly sings
main set closer, and perhaps Lord Huron’s most famous tune, ‘To The Ends of the
Earth’ back to the 5 dark-suited men on stage. The communal feeling fostered by
the shared questioning of “to the ends of the earth would you follow me?” is
one of the warmest moments of the night.
The band don’t leave the stage for long before coming out to
perform my personal highlight, the beautifully sad ‘The Night We Met’, the real
hairs-on-the-back of your neck moment of the show in which frontman Ben Schneider
does his best Matt Berninger impression. All that’s left then is the light-hearted
pogoing and sing-a-long of ‘Time to Run’, which culminates with the group
coalescing around the drum kit for the final extended flourish, the classic
indicator of a gig’s ending. The audience can walk out into the cool London air
satisfied that Lord Huron have delivered a fine set heavy on honest emotion,
genuine heart-racing moments and foot shuffling indie-folk.
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