Considering it’s the day before Warpaint entered the top ten
of the UK album charts with their eponymous second album, it’s little surprise that the sizeable downstairs part of
the O2 is packed to capacity by the time the LA band grace the stage for
tonight’s festivities. Inevitably the majority of tonight’s set is indebted to
the newer material which has seen the band shift further towards a moody
atmospheric trip hop sound, allowing keyboards and synthesisers to take some of
the focus away from the guitars. Some of the criticism that has been lumped at
the newer songs suggest that the songwriting has suffered at the hands of uber
desk-jockey Flood’s sleek production style, but in this live setting the band
are really quite bombastic, giving us a setlist that leans heavily on the
livelier of the new songs, as well as encompassing some gems from their
previous two releases, The Fool and Exquisite Corpse.
As ever, it’s the vocal interaction between the four band
members that really sets Warpaint apart from their contemporaries and this is
what shines tonight; whether it’s the haunting “Billie Holliday”, the fiendish gang-vocals
of “Composure” or “Love is to Die,” Emily Kokal and co have mastered a style of
sing-speak, alternatingly conversational, airy and strident, that leads their
songs through emotional peaks and troughs. Musically, the band is in fine form
too, having spent the last few years touring heavily on the back of The Fool. While it’s not always evident
on record, Warpaint are a jam-band at heart, or at least they enjoy locking
into bass-led grooves while reverb-heavy guitars intertwine, as is evidenced by
some extended instrumental sections tonight. Drummer Stella Mozgawa does much
of the heavy lifting in this capacity with some excellent hi-hat work
punctuating some of the band’s jerky flights of fancy, while Theresa Wayman and
the others continuously switch between guitars and keyboards throughout the set
to add heft and lightness where necessary.
For most of the set the audience seem strangely subdued – respectful
and clearly enjoying themselves but perhaps allowing themselves to become too awash
in Warpaint’s emotional waters at the sake of an atmosphere. It’s only when the
band crank out (ironically enough) “Undertow” – fan favourite and feel good hit
of the summer 2011 – that the audience fully snap out of this haze and raise
the roof. It’s the song that probably best encapsulates the band’s sound – a
bass-led, vocally immaculate, emotionally ambiguous pop song with an almighty
wig-out at the end of it to boot. Elsewhere new track “Biggy” is a particular
highlight, with a dynamic keyboard lead part allowing the vocals to float
delicately atop a gently shuffling rhythm, but inevitably it is the older songs
that elicit the warmest responses tonight. Encoring with “Elephants” from the
debut EP (and a sly interpolation of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” for good
measure) the band ultimately leaves the stage victorious, warpaint smeared but
intact.
[Originally published in Nightshift Magazine, Issue 224, March 2014]http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/2014/mar.pdf
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