By DJ Astrocreep
Another scorching hot day beckons in a rather more tranquil gig than the previous with Puscifer, in the shape of The Blackheart Orchestra, with a couple of supports. The setting of an old chapel, still seemingly in use, makes for incredible acoustics and hopefully harks at what should be quite melodic and enjoyable gig. It has to be said, the chapel itself feels warmer inside than out and it feels quite sacrilegious to be ordering Dark Fruits cider when in there, but hey – that’s all part of the rock n roll!
First on, we have Foxpalmer, a duo from London and there’s immediately a feel of a Celtic Buckingham Nicks, with an emphasis on acoustic guitar for most things and an electric overlay providing an extra layer of melody to their proceedings. Fern Fox Palmer, our chanteuse and acoustic player, has a great, soulful voice with a nod towards a Celtic tone and has a clear ear for creating appealing acoustic songs. Her guitarist for the evening, by the name of Rodney, provides that extra electric tone, played again in quite a soulful manner, which expertly compliments what Fern is doing and they together provide quite a mesmerizing performance that the audience takes well to. An excellent start to the evening.
Our other support come on, another duo in Audrey’s Dance, this time on electric piano and vocals. Purveyors of sad-pop, they actually work very well in this setting. Relying on some rather stunning vocals from Hannah and well played keys from Zeinep, their melodies are a definite benefit to the gig, even with their Franz Ferdinand and Bats For Lashes covers – in fairness, very well performed – taking space from their well written and likeable own songs. While the heat may be rising in the chapel, the talented pair seem fairly ice cold – after Hannah loosens up from being a bit stiff at the start of their set. Seeing both ladies relax as they go through their set is good, seeing them enjoy performing it as much as the rest of us are enjoying it and it leads to what is a very well played set.
After 7500 miles and 23 gigs, spanning Penzance across the border into Scotland, it was finally the last night of this tour for The Blackheart Orchestra. The acoustics of the chapel are perfect for their intricate layering of sound and this is quickly proven as they wind into their set. Their usual humour and fan interaction is there, between comparing fairytales and Black Sabbath’s ‘Fairies Wear Boots’ (Sabbath won the crowd interaction) and Crissy commenting on how Rick has the cooler side of the chapel, it’s great to see the hard touring duo back on somewhat familiar soil. There are a couple of sound issues from the in house PA, but they carry on regardless, not letting this affect their performance in any way.
The setlist spans more across latest release ‘Hotel Utopia’ – unsurprisingly for an album tour – though there are a couple of throwbacks in the set too. The likes of ‘In Another Life Time’ and ‘Wolves’ are as mesmerizing as ever, from previous release ‘Mesmeranto’, while there are plenty of tracks peppered in from ‘Hotel Utopia’, including main set ender ‘The Flood’, which sounds absolutely incredible live. There is room for ‘Sebastian’, their first song that ever properly captured my attention, several years ago in their support slot of Hawkwind at The Lowry, and eternal set closer, their only encore, in ‘Hey Pluto’.
The Blackheart Orchestra never fail to enchant and tonight is no exception to this rule. Another show of their ridiculous talent levels, proving that being a duo is no barrier to the amount of noise and harmonies you can create through sheer talent.
- Photo by the author.
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