12 January 2012 (gig)
16 January 2012
Since their formation in 2007, Lanterns on the Lake have two self-released EP’s behind them, scores of live performances and festival appearances including Bestival and Glastonbury. 2011, however, saw the release of their first 11-track album ‘Gracious Tide, Take Me Home’ under Bella Union (UK). And having sold out several gigs, including this one, they are quickly building up a strong fan-base; I met many people who had seen them live three or four times already. ‘They’ve just got something…’ I heard one saying in the crowd.
They started with a bang, with ‘Lungs Quicken. ‘Lungs please breathe for me…heart just beat for me’, Hazel Wilde swooned in her ethereal, dreamy voice. You could feel every word, every note of the song – a slight piano twinkle, the rapping of drums and the trail of the violin.
‘If I’ve Been Unkind’ was mesmerizing. Paul Sykes on vocals managed to be both sexy and touching at the same time ‘When you were missing/I looked almost everywhere/ I sailed the seas/ You were never even there’ as the violin whispered in the background. The songs often start slow and heavenly, before building up to something deeper.
Bassist Brendan Sykes and Paul Gregory on guitar stood out and gave an impassioned, heartfelt performance that could please even a hard-rock fan for ‘A Kingdom’, a song that draws comparison with the Coldplay or Arcade Fire. Normally with six members, you’d expect things to get crowded, or for one or two members to carry the entire set; but not with Lanterns. Every single one of them, from the vocalists to Sarah Kemp on violin, had something to add. They were entirely connected.
During their seventh track ‘Keep on Trying’ the audience was silent in the brief pauses between notes, the atmosphere electrifying. As Hazel motioned ‘Just remember the side you’re on/And the love that would fill your home’ I looked around and several members of the audience had closed their eyes in a trance-like stance. Lanterns on the Lake take you to a whole new level of music satisfaction that is only made better when you seem them live. After seventy minutes the band finished with ‘Not Going Back to the Harbour’ - a moving and fitting way to end the set, ‘Leave me here on the rocks breathing life/ By the shoreline…I’m not going back to the harbour/ I’m not going back to the hard life’. Chilling and beautiful.
‘What a band! What a fucking band!’ I heard one man shout. At times timid and soft-spoken in their interaction with the audience, I got the distinct impression that they don’t quite realize how good they are. Comparisons have already been drawn to Sigur Rós, Low, This Mortal Coil and The XX but this gig made them worthy of being counted amongst all those names. A truly exceptional, moving performance.
