By Jase Walker
It’s not every day you get a chance to see one of your favourite bands smash out the entirety of your exact favourite album but this is what I’ve been eagerly waiting for months to see. It’s just a shame I’ve had to sacrifice my sleep tonight at the altar of enjoying the experience on the other side of the country like.
Anyway, it’s Wednesday, I’m back in Tilburg, and tonight I get to see Animals As Leaders go through the entire album of ‘The Joy Of Motion’ and I couldn’t be happier. It’s pretty bloody nice that Night Verses are in support for this show too and doubtless it’ll be the most musical notes played in a single tour for the last decade.
I’ve been keen to see Night Verses again after their show with Tool last year, I feel that an arena show doesn’t quite give their sound the right sort of grit. The moment these guys kick things off, I can immediately tell that this is the right sort of place to experience Night Verses.
The rumbling bass bounces around in my gut while the soaring guitar spits out an insane amount of shredding, leaping around the fretboard like it’s the last time it’d ever get played all while the drums groove away to tie it all together. This band is easily the single most complimentary act for someone like Animals As Leaders, from their sheer intensity all the way to their insane skill. Also probably one of the rare acts where even the drummer gets involved in jumping around.
They’ve got their own way of keeping the eyes invested in what’s going on while they play, motions to clap along and the like when they have a rare moment free and such, but these three mainly seem content to focus entirely on letting the music speak for itself. What stands out the most for these however is how minimal the backing tracks are on the live show, seemingly only used for sampled dialogue.
It’s impressive how much a trio can fill out the audio space with careful use of many effects on both the guitar and bass which as far as I can tell are being driven by a processing stack that could be AxeFX or similar. That’s not to say their drummer isn’t doing an incredible job either though, quite the opposite with how he handles delicate moments with just enough groove to keep things moving or just going at it like a madman dancing across the kit when the heavier parts hit.
It’s fantastic that they are making the trip to Europe more often and possibly I can have my cake and bloody eat it when they put ‘Copper Wasp’ back in the set. Anyway, Night Verses killed it, headliner tour next please if you would… which is happening in September as they mention!
And finally, the start of ‘The Joy Of Motion’ from Animals As Leaders, beginning with the unmistakable sparkly intro of ‘Kascade’ and what an interesting production they have behind them. Hang on, is the ring around Matt (drums) armed with directional lighting too?!
Of course with the sheer amount of layering that Animals As Leaders have in their music it’s to be expected that there’s backing tracks to saturate the sound a bunch but that’s not why we’re here. The lighting that surrounds the band is superbly done, very clean with pillars at ascending heights either side of the drum kit but what I didn’t expect was the multitude of super bright strobes dotted around higher up.
I’ve not heard ‘Lippincott’ in quite a while either and I am just here enjoying the live ride through this album here. The drumkit halo is a screen too?! Oh, it’s not, but it is however, a very bloody clever use of an LED light. I didn’t think there was much to see on stage initially but this is really something. I can’t help but feel there’s a bit of influence from Pink Floyd’s PULSE live shows here.
‘Another Year’ is such a damn good track to have a good dance to right up until the heaviness kicks in and then it’s time to (artfully) headbang but I can already feel the upcoming lead into my favourite segment. ‘Physical Education’ opens with its big groove and probably the fattest bass drop I’ve ever heard that actually made people’s hair move.
It’s also great that despite the album show, they’re not running for 1:1 reproductions of the songs, they’ve got that lovely bit of live spice in there too. Now time for the hardest follow-up ever with ‘Tooth And Claw’; for such a fun song to come first before Animals As Leaders rip into one of the most aggressive tracks on the album is such a massive bounceback in feel! I’m already thinking this is easily the best I’ve ever seen AAL out of about something like ten times; this isn’t just my favourite album hype either. You’ve got a packed out venue all going nuts for some delicious jazzy metal, a fantastically slick production and AAL sound absolutely fucking unreal.
Whether it’s a mix of first class sound engineering and the venue’s PA system being incredible, I don’t really care much at this point because I’m completely drawn in and in awe of this show. Another fantastic two song segment of this album is signalled by the introduction of some classic nylon stringed guitars to get ‘Para Mexer’ started that leans much stronger on the Jazzy side of things before pulling it back into the heavier side with jumping into ‘The Woven Web’. The signature slapped passage for ‘The Woven Web’ before slaying the massive bridge riff is absolutely turn worthy in the best way, what an immense track this is, a real highlight.
I’ve always been curious to see how ‘Mind-Spun’ goes live as well and I can assure you, it goes hard as fuck and it’s a shame its never really been a huge part of their live sets over the years. ‘Nephele’ sees off the ‘Joy Of Motion’ run with another brilliantly aggressive track to wrap everything up and I feel incredibly sated with this performance.
I know there’s still a bit more to come but being able to see one of your favourite albums done justice at a live show like this is incredibly rare. ‘Micro-Aggressions’ and ‘Red Miso’ top things off because ‘Parrhesia’ is still their newest album and they might as well hammer out the best content from that too while we’re at it!
This was legitimately the best show I have ever seen them perform without any doubt in my mind. A superb production to match a superb performance.
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