The Appleseed Cast

Terrashima are alright. I thought they were better at first but it’s not their fault the bands they’re followed by don’t leave much memory-space for what went before. To their credit they create a nice wall of sound (bordering on illegally) reminiscent of current noise terrorist dahlings the Icarus Line. So you could call them Icarus Line-lite if you were mean. But I’m not and their ‘short and sweet’ set went down well, their singer dances (and sings?) in a passionate ants-in-pants fashion, plus their frenetic choppy guitar parts are quite nice.

Cursive are, to some extent, a large extent, a surprise. Having only heard one song off Domestica I hadn’t quite prepared myself for the aural assault that is their live experience. It’s always the unassuming types. Their singer reminds me of a pissed-off Robert Smith who’s been taught lessons in yelping by Omar Rodriguez yet is prone to bouts of whispered spoken word. This is a good thing. The songs are like mini masterpieces, which leave you looking upwards, pondering as to why the roof of the Dublin Castle is indeed still intact. Endearingly emotional (not emo, natch), Cursive know how to conjure a fucking good riff or 10, and have the expert ability to combine it with some pretty nifty and more often than not disjointedly beautiful melodies. You may think this is being said of many a band, and you would be right. You may think it is easy, a run-of-the-mill attribute, but au contraire my cynical friend. Of course, having a cello involved helps push Cursive leaps and bounds ahead of their contemporaries, extending their sound to an almost orchestral dimension, giving my masterpiece claim a bit of endorsement. Think of a new age Bluetip, who make you run to the merch stand whilst simultaneously shaking your hips as if they had the power over your limbs, and you wouldn’t be far off. As I said folks, run!!

I think I can vouch for everyone when I say the whole venue is sweating rather unattractively by the time Deep Elm stars the Appleseed Cast come on stage. We’ve waited long for this, oh yes we have. We won’t mention cancellations, keeping quiet and waiting for the songs would be an altogether better idea. So we wait and they deliver. With recent albums, the atmospheric Low Level Owl Volumes I and II it was hard to tell how the intricate soundtrack-like melodies were going to translate live. And now that we know, it is hard not to call the ‘Cast boys geniuses. To name but a couple off the volumes, Steps and Numbers and Strings are both replicated to a standard that boasts superiority to the record. Just because of the pure emotion that comes out of the speakers, via the drifting guitars and rhythm section that discreetly build up with help from Christopher Crisci’s vocals, used as an additional instrument as opposed to a blatantly glorified tool. This might sound like a weird comparison, but think of a spider web that is cunningly woven without you noticing, which then precedes to suddenly swallow you whole, and you have the effect of an Appleseed Cast tune on the gawping crowd.

If you think that all good songs need vocals, you might as well stop reading right now. The Appleseed Cast don’t need them, sometimes they are just plain unnecessary, because the music is enough. More than enough, it could be argued. Filling every nook and cranny of the venue, with songs such as Strings, guitar melodies are like mantras that seep into your soul, pick you up and leave you in an entirely different place altogether. Finishing their short set with crowd-acknowledged classics Marigold & Patchwork and Fishing The sky you are literally in a different place, a satisfied smile-plastered-on-face one, dripping in lovely fluids.

Although in unrelated veins of the rock blood stream, Cursive and the Appleseed Cast share an affinity in that they both create music that subverts, that takes you away to another land, where music is a divine spiritual experience and the only thing you have to worry about is how connected your head is to your neck. On stepping outside into the surprisingly un-chilly Camden air, you’ll be glad to know the hippy in me disappeared, but the memory of the Appleseed Cast and Cursive live on … don’t lose faith, people. Find good music, and you will be saved!