By Jase Walker
There are always going to be shows that are always worth a lengthy trip and today’s jaunt down to Eindhoven for the evening is a fine example of just that. Blackened shoegaze Danes MØL return to stomp around Europe in support for their latest album, ‘DREAMCRUSH’, while bringing along Tayne and Cold Night For Alligators for the ride.
I’m personally a huge fan of Cold Night For Alligators so I couldn’t resist hitting them up for a quick chat prior to the show to discuss how things have been going in the few years since I saw them make a splash at RADAR Festival back in 2022. It’s great to see them back with a great new album, With All That’s Left, and hitting the road again so getting to fill in the blanks with what’s been going on behind the scenes was great to dig into.
It’s great seeing the venue filling out well just prior to CNFA taking the stage, Eindhoven always seems to deliver pretty well for mid-week attendance so let’s get stuck in! They kick things off with ‘Dance With You’ and roll in pretty hard with the newest album, clearly showing they’re in the new era of CNFA and that’s what their opening slot is going to hit the crowd with! While it seems to err a bit more strongly on the side of poppy segments, these guys don’t stray too far from their usual bread and butter of tasty proggy riffs.
The band moves around a bunch and rarely spend long in one spot but their singer is definitely the more loose of them as his sudden changes in direction with strong pacing keeps the others on stage on high alert when moving around him with a couple of near-misses here and there. Initially the bass was a bit weak but this has been turned solidly by the midpoint of the set and the grunt is properly there now to support those lovely fat riffs CNFA roll with.
Although it’s been brief, I’ve spent the entire set staring at the band with a massive grin on my face as I’ve got to see these guys smash another fantastic show of pop-tinged proggy metal again for the first time in years. I just hope it’s not long before I get to see them again and maybe, just maybe, a headliner set from them that doesn’t involve a trip to Denmark!
Next up tonight is Tayne who I’m not actually familiar with prior to the show so I’m quite excited to see what they’ve got to bring to my ears. Initially after they started I was like “Oh this is very NIN/Alec Empire” but a sudden switch in gears thrusts me headlong into a passage that’s reminiscent of some of Devin Townsend’s screaming wild rides which certainly came as a surprise.
Tayne have quite an interesting mix of sonic elements, the clean vocals remind me a lot of the likes of HEALTH, the screams have the same shrill rasp that Devin Townsend and the overall music jumps back and forth between industrial and near thrash similar to how Heriot sounds. I can see what they mean about terming themselves a noise rock band because it’s almost like anything goes at any point, there’s no prep for changing the gears, if there’s a need for a screamy cacophony of aural assault then that’s very much going in there and you can fucking like it.
Overall a good fun and solid set despite feeling like I didn’t quite get it but a band I’d probably see again given the chance. I just wish the crowd had given them a better response as people seemed to be a bit lacking enthusiasm considering how much energy Tayne were putting out.
Finally for this evening, the return of MØL.
The intro seemingly was building up to a bigger crash but switches to a much more muted start that flows into a much more dreamy feel. I know this is the calm before the storm because I’ve seen these more than a few times now and this is going to ramp up out of nowhere. The venue by this point is resoundingly full, with all their eyes firmly locked on the band to absorb the oncoming emotional journey for the next hour.
One thing that I love about MØL’s shows is their singer’s characteristic style on stage, constantly moving but often tries to lean as far as he can from the stage into people’s faces because if you’re not coming to him, he’s certainly coming to you. MØL sound truly fantastic tonight, a superbly strong and clear sound that lets all the lovely guitar melodies ring out across the room but in a slight contrast to the recorded material, the vocals aren’t totally buried in typical shoegaze style and it sounds all the better for it.
The sound of MØL’s emotionally heavy yet uplifting sound comes to life in their live shows in a way that their recorded material, while exceptional in its own right, just can’t seem to match. A brief false start at one point is dealt with after a loud pop before swiftly moving on, wouldn’t be a live show without the odd hitch here and there would it now? We do seem to have lost a guitarist though at this point so despite them soldiering on, I would guess it’s a pretty serious gear issue!
Their return to the stage is greeted by a round of claps and cheers though so looks like we’re all set to go! It certainly looks like this has rattled him a bit and can empathise with the feeling of wanting to get through the rest of the show without something else going wrong.
For what it’s worth though, from my point of view it’s not impacted the enjoyment of the show and it’s credit to him for acting decisively to get the show going again and being a bit careful for the sake of the continuity. The new material from ‘DREAMCRUSH’ sounds absolutely stellar though: for an album that I’ve already been rinsing since its release, this is just compelling to listen to it even more.
As with a lot of these shows I’ve had to dip out a bit before the end because it’s a pretty lengthy trip back and this was a particularly late running show so I can’t quite stick out the end but I got my proper fill of MØL at least! These are a band that I’d rarely miss the chance to see so next time they’re about, I’ll definitely be there because I can’t get enough of this happy-sad sound they’ve got because I can’t think of anyone barring the odd Rolo Tomassi song that even comes close to this sort of sound.
Have a cracking tour lads, there’s a while to go still and I don’t doubt every date is going to welcome you with open arms.
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