Photo: Paul Bevan
Barely speaking to the crowd beyond frontman Adam Granduciel’s endearing inaugural address, 2014 success story and prog-rock superstars, The War On Drugs managed a commanding stage presence at London’s Brixton Academy.
Dressed in denim - with drummer Charlie Hall in a Springsteen-style bandana - the band arrived on stage to thunderous applause, starting their set with the driving sunset sprawl of ‘Under The Pressure’. Bewitching the South London audience into a hazy world of dirty Harley Davidsons, heavy-duty trucks and dusty American highways, warm stabs of piano drove hearts into mouths as the singer’s trademark yelps and ‘woahs’ echoed a wolf-like response from the audience.
Bathed in pink and white light, the band delivered late Joni Mitchell style flourishes of saxophone on ‘Suffering’, while that old staple of bluesy Americana, the harmonica, gave a timeless feel to tracks like ‘Baby Missiles’ and ‘Arms Like Boulders’.
Armed with his twilight orange 1976 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, Granduciel often displayed an inward reverie that made you feel more like witnessing a particularly absorbing and intimate jam session than a stage show. He bounced back and forth, signalling key changes with just a glance to a bandmate. But with rich reverb and waves of fuzzy melody rolling off his instrument in waves all night long - and on particularly transcendent renditions of ‘An Ocean In Between The Waves’ and ‘Red Eyes’- this was hardly an issue.
From an album of songs born out of frontman Granduciel’s period of acute depression and anxiety, tonight’s ambient performance is an overwhelmingly uplifting one. His Dylan-esque drawl manages to bring relief to the poignant narrative of songs caught in the teeth of melancholia, ensuring this is way more rock and roll on the night than an exhibition of a man breaking down.
The War On Drugs played:
Under The Pressure
Baby Missiles
Arms Like Boulders
An Ocean in Between the Waves
Burning
Disappearing Eyes
To The Wind
Red Eyes
Encore:
Lost In The Dream
In Reverse
Suffering
Your Love Is Calling My Name
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