Featured image and gallery: Sophie Robinson
Following the release of their fourteenth album, 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips (the name coming from a switchblade owned by frontperson Jamie Stewart), experimental rock collective Xiu Xiu played St Mary’s Parish Church in Stockport, a venue as unique and intimate as their music.
The night begins with a set from Leeds-based duo Drum Wife, who, as the name suggests, use a pair of drum machines, along with droning synths to create an endlessly building loop of feedback, percussion and vocals.
Xiu Xiu continued the theme of instrumental variety, incorporating anything from custom-built symbols to a personal massager attached to a cowbell into their performance, alongside the traditional guitar and synth.
Jamie Stewart and Angelo Seo, the group’s core members, are joined live by ex-Devo member David Kendrick, who’s drumming provides a solid backbone to the pair’s wild sonic excursions.
Stewart’s soft spoken vocals bring a hushed, melancholic atmosphere to St. Mary’s despite the wall of noise created by the band. There’s barely a whisper between songs from either band or the spellbound audience.
While primarily playing tracks from their latest album, Xiu Xiu’s setlist takes time to delve into fan-favourites such as the endlessly haunting ‘Sad Pony Guerilla Girl’, as well as a number of deep cuts from their lengthy discography, including the spoken word ‘Maybae baeby’.
The show ends with Stewart returning to stage for a solo encore of acoustic track ‘Fabulous Muscles’, a fittingly sombre note to end the night.
Featured Image: Lauren Maccabee Sports Team frontman Alex Rice has an impish relationship with the internet. In 2021, he went toe-to-toe in a Twitter spat with The 1975’s Matty Healy, mercilessly trolling the singer before coyly posing for photos together months later. Forever the opportunist, Rice plastered the image all over t-shirts promoting Sports Team’s…
Featured image and gallery: Sophie Robinson Following the release of their fourteenth album, 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips (the name coming from a switchblade owned by frontperson Jamie Stewart), experimental rock collective Xiu Xiu played St Mary’s Parish Church in Stockport, a venue as unique and intimate as their music. The…
Featured image and gallery: Thomas Holloway Despite the chill of the November air, Co-op Live arena promises to transport us back to the sunny festival season with huge performances from UK garage legends The Streets and indie quartet Kasabian on the bill. Full to bursting with its 23,000 capacity, the audience is split between excited…
Flawed brilliance enhanced by cursed production In the first of ‘In Defence Of…’, a new series revisiting albums that were either panned by the critics or split the artists’ fanbase, music editor Ian Burke delves into 1997’s Endless, Nameless by The Wildhearts. If debut album Earth vs The Wildhearts fired Britrock’s starting pistol in 1993,…
Leave a reply