The Hope, 27 November 2009
It’s almost ironic that The Antlers are standing in front of a banner plastered with the word ‘Hope’ in foot high letters across it. Their brand of searching ambience, their breathtaking, album-of-the-year-contender record ‘Hospice’, and their intimate live show – it all seems to evoke a certain sense of hope. Not that The Antlers are consistently cheery or upbeat, it’s more that their music is towering in the face of adversity. The album deals with the imminent death of a loved one, yet if there is one word to describe its tone, it is hope.
‘Hospice’, admittedly is not the happiest of albums, and tonight the band stuck exclusively to playing material of the album. Beginning with album openers ‘Kettering’ and ‘Sylvia’, it’s an at first painfully intimate watching what seems like front man Peter Silberman tear himself apart on stage. As on the album, the music is filled with repetitions of the same melody line and the same vocal harmonies, giving the music a familiarity, and ties the set together so that overall it feels like an extension of one song as opposed to a set of ‘hits’. With moments of quiet ambience – even the noise of ice hitting glass from behind the bar threatens to break the mood – interspersed with soaring anthems, the band could be at risk of playing a somewhat schizophrenic set. However, they manage to marry the two with undeniable ease, and it’s this that makes The Antlers such a powerful act; on record, but even more so live.
Throughout their set Silberman’s performance is overwrought with emotion, with his voice transforming from the relaxed lower registers to a scratching falsetto in an instant without ever losing anything in intensity. While the band succeed in creating a vast sonic atmosphere that makes The Hope seem much bigger than it actually is, it’s Silberman that shrinks the music back down to the personal, and ultimately where The Antlers biggest success lies. It’s a night of hope, The Antlers may not have everything stacked against them, but it often feels like they do, and their biggest triumph is always believing they can overcome it. In the audience tonight it’s is unlikely there’s a soul who doesn’t believe it either.
Words and photography by Dave Drummond
myspace.com/theantlers
