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Black Midi at Phase One Liverpool (21/06/19) – Live Review

There are four portaloos outside Phase One. Being a record shop, this is the closest thing you can get to a toilet. The members of Black Midi take the chance to use them while the audience are queueing. They take no effort in being surreptitious. The few queueing are subjected to a beautifully whistled rendition of what sounds like ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. Good one boys. 5 star gig for that alone.  

Supporting ‘Black Midi’ is ‘Rattle’. Two female drummers, one whom also takes on vocals. She has an incredible voice, resembling Ari Up from The Slits. I was surprised to find that this band were from England following this performance. They have a peculiar foreign tribal sound to them, that is a daring and fresh approach. They come on with moth eaten drum sticks. Something that I admire, and find fairly amusing. Although having potential as something unique, their ambitious attempts fall flat on their face. The long winded drum solos meander on with little dynamics. There were few stand out moments and all the songs meshed into one. In rare moments they used interesting reverb effects on the snare drum, which redeemed their quality. Through a lot of work, something unique and spectacular could be released by this group, but playing with just drums alone makes this hard. 

A dark purple light overhangs Black Midi as they come on stage to play their first ever Liverpool show. Greep and Kelvin are wearing their trademark cowboy hats. The huge brims make them look like giants above the small peasants of the crowd. They are moody, just as the low lighting is. They make no verbal communication with the audience. They just play great song, after great song, and then quietly pack down. Greep keeps biting his lips,and sucking in his cheeks. While Kelvin hides his face with his guitar at photographers. You can only wonder what nerves go through their minds while on stage. Their set consists of the entire debut album ‘Schlagenheim’, alongside the two non album singles ‘Talking Heads’ and ‘Crows Perch’.  

Photo Credit: Milly Schofield

Black Midi impressively play perfectly, no duff notes. They use a myriad of effects pedals, and use them to their full advantage. Notably on Set highlight ‘BmBmBm’. Kelvin alters a clip from TV show ‘Big Brother’ through his phone, adding effects to the voice using pedals. Their futuristic approach leave one final interpretation. They are aliens. Another great moment comes forth when Kelvin uses a bullet microphone for the raucous ‘Years Ago’. His howl outdoes the album performance and leaves a spine tingling impression. They use a gratifying flanger effect when playing ‘Talking Heads’ that isn’t heard on the studio recording. There are many moments where the band break out into pleasing jams that you wish would never end. Their talent is pure gold. 

Simpson has a towel wrapped over his sweat drenched face. He is playing in deranged fashion at the same time as defending yet more perspiration, using only his head movements. Picton is pouring full bottles of water over his head, exploding down his neck onto his bass. Greep and Kelvin are stalking the stage leaving huge shadows at the wall. Welcome to the circus. 

The audience spend the first half of the gig open mouthed. You could hear a pin drop. With the only movements being the head convulsions, which is automatic when hearing this music live. The crowd later wake up, and break into an extreme full crowd mosh pit. Being unexpected, a number of the front row fall face first into the stage. Being central, I fell right into Greeps microphone. I was rewarded with his face in mine. Him waggling his finger, squinting his eyes and shaking his head. I’m sorry Geordie, I can’t afford the compensation cost.

Photo Credit : Milly Schofield

The only downfall of the show was the mixing. The sound was muddy, and the vocals were a tad too low. The band acknowledged this. Especially Greep, who used sign language to the engineer. Greep tapped his hands on his microphone and lifted his hands up, then shake his head with a shrug of the shoulders. It is a shame that their album release show had sound problems. However, this didn’t detract from the experience. The band played top notch and come highly recommended as always. My advice is to catch them live while they’re still small for an intimate, and well worthwhile experience.