Review: Active Child @ Relentless Garage, May 11th.
Posted by: nick
Last night was Active Child‘s debut UK show courtesy of NME Radar at The (Relentless) Garage in Highbury. One of the most exciting new talents this year, we were keen to revisit the Active Child live experience after a brief but rewarding show at SXSW earlier in the year.
For Fans Of: New Order, Fleet Foxes, The Radio Dept.
Active Child a.k.a. Pat Grossi trained as a choir boy in his youth and it sure shows. He possesses an angelically powerful voice and amazing command over it. Debut single ‘She Was A Vision’ kicks off proceedings in fine fashion and it’s great to see that harp materialise on stage as Pat plucks us into a dreamlike trance.
As far as other musicians go Pat is joined only by a bass player and the rest of those gorgeous sounds you hear (with the exception of some guitar by Pat on a couple of tracks) on record are provided via a laptop backing track. Let’s not take anything away from the laptop, it does a fine job but you can’t help but think the atmosphere may be increased by a couple more musicians.
The songs though still stand up amazingly and the likes of ‘Wilderness’, ‘In Your Church At Night’ and ‘Weight Of The World’ from the forthcoming Curtis Lane EP are all dazzlingly beautiful. ‘Take Shelter’ and ‘When Your Love Is Safe’, also from that EP, move slightly away from the ethereal quality of the other songs and opt for a more straightforward, but no less enjoyable (perhaps even more?), synth swagger. Pat’s voice also moves down to a more humanly achievable pitch.
With Pat on guitar we get an open hearted nod to his influences with a cover of New Order’s ‘Ceremony’. Of the older material there’s also time for ‘Voice of An Old Friend’ which pretty accurately sums up in it’s title our feelings towards this music.
Active Child play The Great Escape this weekend, then a few dates supporting White Rabbits including one back at The Garage before a final UK gig as part of the Stag & Dagger.
