Heroes Of Switzerland

Three weeks can seem like three months, particularly when there are still another 12 days to go before payday. So that's why January always feels like the longest month of the year. It would also probably explain the reason why, at even 8pm on a Saturday night, the streets of Nottingham seem deserted. Still, I'm not complaining, particularly as that nice Itbox quiz machine in the Hogshead across from the Social has just paid me £3 for knowing that Mel Eves was once a Wolves legend. Allegedly.

And it's because of that piece of useless football trivia the first couple of songs from support act Heroes Of Switzerland are missed. However, from the four numbers I do manage to catch, one thing that is crystal clear - apart from the pristine quality of the sound - is that not much has changed in camp HOS since DiS first fell head over heels for their 'Disposable Fiction' EP some two-and-a-bit years ago; the title track is pleasingly aired this evening (review). Recent single 'Wish It Away' sounds pleasant enough, but with 2008 already being touted as the year that celebrates itself with a plethora of new shoegaze talent drifting up the horizon, one cannot decide whether Heroes Of Switzerland will finally rise to the top or be swept away by those emerging around them.

DiS is quite enthusiastic about The Lionheart Brothers, however. Ever since last year's 'Hero Anthem' landed on the doormat it's rarely been off the stereo, and a fleeting glimpse of the Trondheim five-piece in front of a native festival audience last summer only whetted the appetite even further.

Anyone who's heard their Dizzy Kiss long-player may be forgiven for expecting an evening of Beach Boys harmonies caressed by Flaming Lips-like whimsy with the odd distortion-pedalled riff thrown in. What you actually get from a Lionheart Brothers live show, of course, is something entirely out of the ordinary; totally unexpected in the context of their recordings, and all the more excitingly pleasurable for it.

What becomes apparent – right from the Hawkwind-go-thrash metal instrumental 'Love Ludicrous', which opens the set, through to the mesmerising eclipse of 'Blue Wedding', which climaxes the last show of their current tour – is that The Lionheart Brothers obviously seem firmly at home playing to an audience (and a fairly enthusiastic one at that given it's their first appearance in this city) to the point where most of the songs (the aforementioned 'Blue Wedding' being the most obvious in question) take on a whole new form, rendering them barely recognisable from their recorded versions. Sure, the vocal harmonies are still there, but with a wall of sound that's not a million miles away from Sigur Rós at their most translucent, or Loop at their most insistently repetitive, this is heaven-scented rock music caressed and endorsed by angels, both visually and sonically sky-scraping.

At the end of the show, with the last coarse bellow of feedback emanating from the monitors, the band are all smiles –bass player Frantz Andreasen particularly so, as his beloved Sheffield Wednesday got three points today. This may be the last date of their brief New Year sojourn to the UK, but make no mistake about it: this won't be the last you hear of The Lionheart Brothers in 2008.

Photo: taken from the band's MySpace, courtesy of* Carina Musk-Andersen*