Saturday 14/10/06 The Knife @ The Forum, London

The Knife. They don’t get out much do they? This may explain their reluctance to show their faces. Who knows, maybe if they removed the balaclavas for a minute they just might just freak everyone out with their translucent skin and all knowing eyes, the beats running nakedly through their veins. However, this autumn, brother/sister duo Olaf and Karin Dreijer are treating their long suffering fans to an international jaunt, taking in the coolest of the cool cities London, Paris, New York. Let’s face it you’re not going to find these two playing at a Barfly any time soon.

We wait. We wait. We wait. For just glimpse of them. Finally they arrive on stage under the cover of darkness, shrouded in black pants, black tops, black balaclavas and day-glo paint; from the off we know this will be a visual spectacular. Mind blowing visuals adorn the huge screen behind the two dark figures on stage, as Gigwise strains to see just where the **** all the instruments are we are blown away by a spider’s web creeping along a second screen seemingly in front of Karin and Olof. What the **** is going on? After being informed that this trippy visual is being created by a wire mesh in-front of the band other smaller screens appear onstage featuring scary mouths singing along with Karin’s eerie vocals on ‘We Share Our Mother’s Health’ and eyes blinking in time to Olof’s steel drums on ‘Pass This On’…it’s like a bad dream but with an amazing soundtrack.

With an atmosphere more like that of a club, The Knife’ bang out ‘Marble House’ and excite an already frenzied crowd with a stripped down version of ‘Heartbeats’, stripped down, dressed up it’s achingly cool song with heartbreaking lyrics; Gigwise has yet to see any actual instruments, just some day-glo drum sticks, but by this point we are past caring.

The Knife leave the stage but return to make the rafters shake with latest single ‘Like A Pen’; everyone is up and dancing, whether the mysterious Knife are enjoying themselves is anyone’s guess. Too soon, the tune is over and the lights are abruptly up revealing a sweaty mess. Karin and Olof disappear for good this time, and where they go nobody knows (Amsterdam actually). But everyone in The Forum will be back to see them when and if the enigmatic duo decide to return to these shores.