Words by Brandon Goei; Photos by Brandon Kosters
originally posted March 24, 2011 at fnewsmagazine.com
You could cut the sonic tension in the air with a knife. Esben and the Witch’s aesthetic seemed to drip from the walls at the Empty Bottle on March 10th, and that aesthetic was, in a word: heavy. Or dreamy. Or chaotic. Or all of the above.
But really, of all the adjectives one might pick to describe Esben, the one that seems to stand out as most popular is “gothic”. The reasons for this adjective were immediately recognizable as the band started their late-night set— thick and syrupy thumps of bass guitar were coupled with the jittering tribal thrust of a superhuman drum machine.
Soon the atmospherics arose in the form of gently dissonant guitars and achingly slow reverb. The omnipresent echoes of lead singer Rachel Davies’ pierced the ethereal noise wall time and again, slapping back and forth between the multiple instruments of fellow bandmates Daniel Copeman and Thomas Fisher. This is “gothic” in the old-school ‘80s flavor— equal parts Bauhaus and Cocteau Twins, with a dash of Siouxsie Sioux, garnished with a young Nick Cave.
And even though that tag comes with a good bit of pride and legacy, it also carries a few shortcomings, namely a tendency towards contrived one-sidedness. This was the issue with Esben’s performance, it was too much of a good thing. And although the atmosphere amplified into skillfully controlled chaos whenever all three members took turns beating a drum center stage, it was an atmosphere that lacked texture and true substance after the first twenty or so floor tom thwacks.
So, should you go see Esben and the Witch live? Sure. If anything, it’s an experience in itself to watch all the greying goths of your town creep out to witness someone attempting to recreate their glory days. But if you stay and pay attention to the music, you might just hear a band in the process of translating their greatest influences. But until then, it might still be too derivative to be calling it anything other than fan service.