Archive @ Dingwalls

Archive will be supporting Muse at the Stade de France next week. That alone should tell you how much respect they get in France. And that's why I was very eager to see them live: Their last two albums are surely interesting, but there are in now way masterpieces (and also they are not radio-friendly at all).

The venue itself, Dingwalls, was quite nice, right in the middle of the Stables market in Camden. The supporting act was Metsuo, which in short consist of two guys playing samples on their Mac laptops while chewing gum. They obviously didn't give a rat's ass about their music, so neither did I. Fair play.

And then came Archive. Their set was short, but it was quite amazing to be standing literally 1 meter away from them.
They started with just the two original members playing piano and samples, and then the rest of the band entered the stage as the song Lights built up. This song, already the latest album's centerpiece, takes an other dimension live. The looping riff is completely hypnotizing, and when all the instruments have added up it becomes really deep and intense.
The rest of the gig was in the same vein, dark and repetitive, in a good way. One of the highlights was the song Fuck you, clearly a brilliant song.

On the bad side, the band badly needs a frontman. Currently they have two singers: The first one looks like Richard Ashcroft, and isn't bad even if he lacks charisma; The second one has charisma, but whith his stylish haircut and self-conscious moves, he seems too focused on his appearance to sing with true honesty.

To conclude, I think that with the sort of music they are making, and their lack of frontman, it seems quite logical that they don't reach mainstream audience. I would even say that it is deserved.
However, that they remain completely unknown in the UK, without their albums being released, is beyond me...