Handsome Furs-Live At Oxford Art Factory 29/8
So let us begin with the back story. Handsome Furs are a synth, guitar and beats based duo out of Montreal, Canada. The two members of the band are Dan Boeckner (of Wolf Parade) on guitar and vocals together with his wife Alexei Perry (a short story writer) running the programmed beats, playing synth and doing some backing vocals. The band are signed to the American indie behemoth Subterranean Popular and this year they released their second record Face Control. Although not immediately evident under the waves of guitar and synthesizer, Face Control is a reactionary record. Says Alexei “The world isn’t representative of how I want it to be, so I have to always rally against it. And that’s what I want on the record”(via). The record is primarily inspired by the dehumanized post-Cold War Eastern Bloc and the contrasting underground arts culture that they experienced while they were there. Face Control is potent with this juxtaposition of aggression and affection within both its music and its themes. The record’s title is similarly inspired, taken from a door policy in Russia wherein bouncers can keep people out of club’s just because they don’t like the look of them.
Despite the inherent humor of the plotline, the video below for the first single off the record I’m Confused is a great visual representation of this attitude as it exacts throughout their record. As the band plays the world is devoured by zombies.
Handsome Furs-“I’m Confused” from Sarah Marcus on Vimeo.
So with the band on our shores for their first ever visit to Australia, the question then became, how do two people (a husband and wife no less) that are making beat driven music that is rife with emotion and energy in the studio translate this into a live show. The answer is, with consummate ease. Handsome Furs are in fact not limited by their size, rather they are freed by it. Two people on stage, and at that, two people with an obvious and intense connection with one another which spills over into their music and performance meant that the show was entirely engrossing throughout and felt almost voyeuristic at times.
Boeckner immediately got the crowd’s collective ego onside, declaring “Sydney 1, Melbourne 0” after the opening song got a strong response from the audience. Trying to play into this a little more, things went a little awry when they tried to let the crowd dedicate the track Handsome Furs Hate This City (Off 2007’s Plague Park) to Melbourne as an act of inter-city aggression, in the end it got bumped to Wellington NZ, which is probably fair enough.
Misplaced state pride aside Handsome Furs delivered an intense show. Throughout the set, which was primarily derived of songs from Face Control, the absence of a real, living drummer was not even something that was even noticed. Boeckner and Perry more than made up for this with their energy onstage. Perry particularly bounced all around her set-up and at the end of almost every song collapsed to the ground before rising to kick it all off again. Boeckner was similarly active, his guitar parts may not necessarily be described as beautiful, but they sure are catchy as all hell and he uses space within the music beautifully, at no point does one feel as though he is overplaying his hand and flooding the songs unnecessarily. From beginning to end Handsome Furs delivered a fiery set of powerful pop based-beat driven songs.
The show was a blistering success as the husband and wife held everyone’s attentions throughout their entire set. Face Control is highly recommended, as is their live show, next time thier in town.
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