Words originally for Outline Magazine
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| L-R: Jack St. James, Alice Fox |
It’s been a bad week, hasn’t it? The weather’s been rubbish, Coldplay are headlining Glastonbury and I’m told there was some big political debate going on as well that people aren’t happy about. So for a much needed music fix, where better to head than The Waterfront Studio for a dash of electro-pop from Avec Sans, and a few local faces too.
A little too much Pyramid Stage iPlayer action meant that I missed Ginny Dix and Abigail Blake, but the solo pianist and harpist have both proven themselves mesmerising at past performances. Heading up the support bill, Maya Law brings her soulful blend of R&B guitar/vocals to a crowd made up of friends and fans. Original material and a signature Amy Winehouse cover flow smoothly from one to another, Law’s sultry vocals enticing the room with a beautiful simplicity throughout. If you haven’t caught this rising talent live yet, stick her on your list, she’s fab.
Tonight’s headliners Avec Sans are unmistakeably sleek in their image. Fronting the duo Alice Fox sports a classic pop star look, an impressive platinum bob serving as the focal point of her appearance. Jack St James flanks her on stage within a three-sided structure of cables, buttons, a laptop and a myriad of touch pads from which he produces the bulk of the band’s music. He wears all black including a baseball cap, in case he needs to swing a bat at any point during the show, I guess. As the pounding introduction to When You Go cuts through the smoke, the front row of his devices light up in an LED rainbow, like vintage video games. It’s an electro-pop performance at its purest, a modern take on 80s clichés running pristinely through the moody synths and the stage décor. An almost unrecognisable take on Bon Iver’s Perth comes second, replacing folky pomp with a striking flood of echoes and churning sequencers.
Original material sees the performance quickly lose its novelty, however. The mid-noughties pop sound that the group encapsulates – which would sit neatly next to the likes of Little Boots, Goldfrapp and Sophie Ellis-Bextor – is polished and professional, but simply ten years behind the curve. Furthermore, St James’ repeated slamming down on artificial instruments flushes out every sense of depth that the songs have on record. It’s the Jack Garratt paradigm – decent tunes, no performability. The sound is two-dimensional: loud and embracing yes, but flat and uninteresting in every other aspect. Poor crowd interaction from Fox, who stares blankly into the middle distance when she’s not singing, makes for a dull experience for those of us less familiar with the group’s material.
By the end of the set the audience are clearly losing interest. Shiver is a generic and soupy, hinting at great dance anthem potential but turning out more like a half-melted ice sculpture than a glitzy marble statue. Heartbreak Hi is a wispy copy of the studio version, but with weaker vocals. And another cover – this time Kate Bush’s unbeatable masterpiece Running Up that Hill – closes proceedings in a frankly blasphemous mess that points fully and unreservedly to the ‘one trick pony’ label.
I wouldn’t write Avec Sans off completely, but it’s a poor first Norwich show from these middle-of-the-road performers.
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