Fever Ray played Webster Hall

(photo from Stereogum)

Fever Ray's self titled debut album is the most haunting album of the past year, and perhaps the past decade. The eerie sounds highly resemble that of Karin Andersson's first project, The Knife, and of course her vocals are unlike anything else in music today. The only downside to the record is that it seems to plateau, very highly, with the first track. It never climaxes and leaves you wanting a little something more. The show personified the record to the fullest extent and in places where you are left wanting more, the live performance filled in the blanks. The show was dark. The opening pounding of "If I Had A Heart" was accompanied with smoke and two thin laser beams that eventually opened up when the experience commenced. From that moment the crowd was hypnotized. The live band was dressed in nightmarish costumes and danced in a daze. When Karin appeared she was donned in a headdress that resembles something I wish to see in "Where The Wild Things Are." The entire show was a spectacle that was totally embraced by the music. Everything was back-lit, there was constant smoke, there were lamps that looked like they were straight from grandma's house, and there were green lasers protruding the hall and cutting through the smoke like... well a knife. While there were few glimpses of Karin's actual face, which did have some make-up, the show added to the mystery effect that is Fever Ray. You never really know what is happening. You see the body onstage the band playing live, but there is still that longing to see everything that is making this sonic pleasure. For once, Webster Hall had a great sound show. The prerecorded tracking was killer and the bass was loud. Her vocals were a little weak at times, but overall the sonic aura was amazing. Fever Ray is a mystique. There is mystery shrouded in that dark dissonant ambient texture. It captivates and takes hold of the listener and even more impressively is that it delivers better live then on record. When everyone vanished into the darkness and the lasers disappeared the house lights came on and the trance ended. For an hour it seemed as if we entered a dream and lost sense of what else was happening and then we came down shook our heads and tried to transcribe what had just happened.

Setlist (via The Music Slut)
If I Had A Heart
Triangle Walks
Concrete Walls
Seven
I’m Not Done
Now’s The Only Time I Know
Keep The Streets Empty
Dry & Dusty
Stranger Than Kindness
When I Grow Up
Here Before
Coconut