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Concert Review: Alcest, April 23, Hard Luck Bar

Posted on
28 Apr 2010
by
Paul

Alcest

Toronto – Black metal and shoegaze – two great tastes that tastes great together?  In the case of French band Alcest, the answer to that question is probably yes.  But the real question would be whether they could pull it off live.  The answer again – yes.  But more on that later.

First, a few words on the opening band.  Unlike Alcest, Monarque do not mix their genres.  They played straight ahead black metal, complete with (fake) spiked gauntlet wristbands, kind of crappy looking runny makeup and a candelabra on stage.  Lit candles?  Did they learn nothing from the Great White tragedy?  Regardless of the quality of their makeup (and the fact that, as my friend Chad pointed out, they looked “like they take themselves too seriously”), they were a pretty solid band.

On to Alcest.  The French band is reminiscent of bands like Mogwai, Jesu, and of course My Bloody Valentine (you can’t not be at least a bit influenced by them if you’re playing shoegaze inspired music) with of course the requisite shrieky black metal vocals and blastbeat drumming.  In order to keep the mood mostly kind of dreamy though, they kept the vocals mostly clean until near the end of the set.  And the guitars were … well, shoegazey.  I guess that’s the best way to describe it.  But totally metal, too, if that makes sense.  I dunno, they were pretty good.  Here’s a video from the show (with admittedly really low sound quality):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31S89O8wnRg 

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