Antemasque at the Electric Ballroom
Le Butcherettes
Electric Ballroom, 15 October 2014
When it was announced that Le Butcherettes were supporting tonight I
was thrilled because I've wanted to see them live for ages, ever since I
heard their debut album Sin Sin Sin three years ago. Not that it was
too much of a surprise given that Antemasque's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez not
only played bass for the band for a short while and formed another,
Bosian Rainbows, with Le Butcherettes front woman, Teresa Suárez aka
Teri Gender Bender, but the pair are apparently also a couple. That
said, even if there wasn't a personal connection between the two bands,
judging by tonight's performance they were a more than worthy choice and
Teri has to be one of the most incredible frontwomen I've seen in
ages.
Muscially, Suárez's voice sounds like a cross between
Siouxsie Sioux and PJ Harvey but her presence on stage is more like Iggy
Pop, as she jumps around, dances, pulls funny faces and gets wrapped up
in the music. Her band is great too: I don't think Omar was on bass for
this show, although it was hard to tell as the bassist was very much in
the shadows at the back of the stage. The drummer Lia Braswell,
however, was right at the front and if Suárez wasn't such a magnetic
frontwoman it would be hard to keep your eyes off her as she was
seriously badass, one of the best new drummers I've seen in ages in
fact.
The show began though with Teri pouncing on stage to sing
Dress Off a cappella, with the drums eventually coming in
halfway through, as she grabbed and clutched at her dress, pulling it up
to reveal her matching shorts (thankfully - I'm far too easily
embarrassed otherwise!) and then strutting around in a possessed way.
She was even cooler though when she strapped on her guitar or played
keyboards, the music being a glorious mix of punk and garage rock and
even a little electronica, but all with Suárez as the focal point of it
all. Near the end of the show she ran off the stage into the middle of
the audience to do a crazed dance and then pushed her way back to the
front and lept over the barriers back on to the stage (with a little
help from a burly Russian security guard) to finish the song. It was
glorious!
Cedric
too was on top form (I can't help but refer to them by their first
names, musically at least they are like old friends to me). He was
dancing in that cool, Latin-tinged, rubber legged way he does, jumping
around and even climbing up the lighting rig to leap through the air
back to his mike. He looked slimmer too than the last time I saw him,
not that he was ever fat, although at one point he explains the only
reason he's talking is so he can catch his breath. "I'm not so fit any
more," he tells us, panting a little. "Got a little daddy fat since I'm
now a dad." (He recently became father to twins.) Although that clearly
isn't the case - he seems as energetic and slim as ever - it does give
him the opportunity to tell us an amusing story about the last time the
pair played the Electric Ballroom 12 years ago, the day before which he
cut off all his hair. The reason why, he says, is because of a little
kid in an elevator who looked up at him and told him "You look like Kirk
Hammett from Metallica". It was good to see him in such a good,
friendly and upbeat mood.
The set itself was short but sweet with only nine songs in all and no encore (as per usual with Omar and Cedric's bands). Beginning with an explosive In The Lurch
and whizzing through Momento Mori and 4AM, the performance was electric,
breathlessly thrilling the whole way through. I Got No Remorse has a
raw and powerful Stooges-like guitar-riff and Rome Armed To The Teeth
sounded incredible, with the chorus like a chant-like war cry. It was
easily one of my highlights. After the more melodic Ride Like The
Devil's Son they played a song I was unfamiliar with called Domino Rain,
which was punky and angular sounding, with some very feedbacky, noisy
guitar from Omar - very cool in fact.
Things got much sadder though when Cedric gave a moving and heartfelt tribute to friend and keyboardist Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, who died of a heart attack the day before aged just 38. Ikey played in both De Facto and The Mars Volta with Cedric and Omar and before telling us that he was their brother, as only bandmates who have been on the road together can be, and asking us to send our love to his family he dedicated the next song, Providence, to him. The song itself did him proud turning into an epic 20-minute performance ending with some fantastic soloing from Omar while Cedric seemed lost in the moment, occasionally throwing in a lyric here and there, before they all eventually returned to the main melody of the song.
The whole thing ended with one of my favouite songs from the
self-titled album, a track called People Forget, with both Cedric and Omar bouncing
off each other musically and Cedric doing some awesome falsetto. At the
end, maybe because it was the final show of the tour, Cedric gave a nice
little speech thanking us for coming out and supporting them and that
the tour had been about two old friends reconnecting. It was something I had never seen him do before and so felt genuine and completely sweet. It was a great thing to witness and hopefully it won't be the last time either.
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