After what was frankly a pretty miserable start to June, the season seemed to change rather suddenly with a mini-heatwave thrusting London into the familiar stickiness of British summertime in the city. Thankfully the notoriously hot O2 Forum Kentish Town feels just about bearable as the house lights dim and the bright sunshine of a midsummer evening is all but forgotten as all eyes adjust to the minimally, moodily lit stage for opening act VOWWS.
The now-LA-based Australian duo are joined by a drummer for these live shows, which should, in theory, add variation and weight to the synth-drenched marching rhythms accompanying the joint vocals of guitarist Matt James and keyboardist Rizz. The crowd can definitely be seen tapping feet and gently nodding heads throughout the set, but the steady pulse and lack of any real dynamic tempo shift leans towards monotony at times.
That being said, it’s clear that VOWWS have spent a good deal of time developing their sound and they emit a quiet assurance and air of confidence that carries its own value. The dual vocals give depth and texture to an accomplished electronic output, peppered with elements of darkwave that wouldn’t sound out of place on the playlist at a gloomy, slick club night.
Rizz moves and flows ethereally, at times conducting the crowd as if they’re some kind of a macabre orchestra, but perhaps they’re not quite ready to react at full-throttle just yet. The melancholic keys, thumping beats and distorted guitar all feel like they could use a dose of theatrics or an energetic burst of vitality that just doesn’t seem entirely present this evening. With a bit more of a performance, there’s a sense that VOWWS could have roused the local goths into a mildly livelier lament.
Maybe the crowd were saving their energy for the powerhouse of the duo that is Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez, because the noise throughout the venue is positively rapturous as they take to the stage to open with ‘Invisible Hand’ from 2023’s ‘Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete’, backlit by the band’s iconic symbol of three crosses.
The dual keyboards on a riser centre-stage are reminiscent of a sci-fi spaceship console, fronted by a raised platform across the entire width of the stage, of which Moreno makes use of every inch over the course of the night.
The smoke machines fire plumes towards the ceiling from the get-go, and there’s an entire video narrative projected onto a backdrop of screens throughout the set; the grainy film contrasting subtly with the pulsing strip lights built into the stage riser. In typically vivacious form, Moreno bounds around looking as full of vitality as ever, the energy infectious with the crowd bouncing along all evening, hands raised aloft from start to finish. It seems as though he is genuinely thrilled by enthusiasm of the sold-out Monday night masses, at one point eliciting a ripple of howling from the swarm of bodies transfixed by his inimitable stage presence.
The value of seeing Crosses live is exemplified in the ferocity of Moreno’s screams coupled with the power behind his clean vocals, always underpinned by the deft work of Lopez on guitar and keys. The slower shoe-gaze moments of tracks like ‘Found’ and ‘Protection’ are steeped in melancholy and superbly contrasted with the gut-churning, bass-heavy explosion of crowd favourite ‘Bitches Brew’. Interspersed with these heavily distorted notes are snatches of techno, lashings of retro synth and flashes of more modern sounding electronica, all mixed together cleverly for maximum impact.
The rising heat doesn’t seem to have impacted the energy in the room by the end of the set, if the enormous roar when the duo return to the stage for closing numbers ‘Telepathy’ and ‘Option’ is anything to go by. This brief but spirited encore closes a night of excellently gothic-tinged groove, and it feels right that it’s now finally dark outside as hoards of happy, sweaty fans stream onto the streets.
ELLIE ODURNY
