Music > Live Reviews

The Horrors

24/09/14

If someone asked you to describe The Horrors, what would you say?

My mother asked me just that question before I went to see the band at the Waterfront. My reply? ”They sound like something between Gary Numan and Simple Minds, and they’ve a fair bit of hair.” Bizarrely, the Labour Party used ‘I See You’ at the beginning of a conference, which prompted ‘Leave it out Ed’ tweets from the band. On paper it doesn’t sound like they’ll work. Then you hear them. And somehow it all just comes together.

I like The Horrors. I like their songs, and I like seeing them. But I have some qualms. For one, I don’t necessarily like the somewhat blinding light show which accompanies without fail. At a festival it works, but in a relatively small venue in Norwich? Not quite so much. The second issue I have with The Horrors is that, however different their tracks sound on the album, there’s something about them live which makes them all sound pretty same-y. It’s not a criticism of the band really, it’s a combination of the sound volumes, the fact that you can’t really see, and that they have a very definite sound these days.

All that said, it’s worth seeing them. You get a crazy mix of people, and you’ll have a good night. Even if the songs blur together a bit, they’re great bloody songs, so who cares?