Henge – HiFi Club, Leeds, November 22nd 2018 (LIVE REVIEW)
Please everyone, let’s have a whip-round and buy Henge frontman, self-styled Zpor and possible intergalactic bastard child of Roy Wood and Timothy Claypole, a second guitar.
The band are about half a dozen songs in, the audience is warming up nicely when a string breaks and there’s no back-up axe, forcing the plasma-ball headed freakoid to spend several minutes replacing it, inducing a slightly surreal interlude featuring bandmates, Goo (Bass/Electronics), Grok (Keyboards) and Nom (Drums) bursting into an impromptu version of ‘Girl From Ipanema’; all of a sudden it’s like we’re watching some weird Vegas magician, leaving one wondering whether this is a frequent occurrence.
The quartet’s October release ‘Attention Earth’ proved a real surprise, the summery pop of lead-off single ‘Indigo Dust’ somewhat of an outlier compared to the rest of the album’s batshittery, including the cover artwork. Combining, 60s B-Movie noir, 80s arcade synths and 90s rave with middle eastern cowpunk thrown in for good measure, we’re left with a sometimes sublime, sometimes ridiculous melting pot of noise that’s never ever dull, the album rounded off with ‘Demilitarise’ an anthemic 21st century call to put our weapons aside.
Surprisingly, tonight’s HiFi club is not crammed although plenty are out for their dose of cosmic dross. Henge appear in full regalia, making one ponder their on the road dry cleaning costs; Zpor holding a staff whilst wearing Inca period headgear that also includes a functioning plasma ball, Goo in full alien garb as the last surviving Venusian, Nom sporting what looks like an Octopus noggin and Grok, properly letting the side down wearing just a cape with seemingly no desire for flight, FFS!
Despite their appearance, Henge are super drilled, a combination of organic rock and roll sounds decorated with electronic frills, voice effects and more besides, making for a potent sound that gets you stomping; very entertaining to watch, a proper performance in fact. Songs such as ‘Monolith’, ‘Venusian Apocalypse’ and ‘Moon’ are all bonkers but brilliant although ‘In Praise of Water’, a 21st century ‘Fools Overture’ turbocharged through a 1980s video console took some beating. Unsurprisingly, ‘Demilitarise’ provided the perfect denouement, Zpor leading an all too eager conga around the venue.
The perfect band for the teatime Pyramid Stage crowd.
Words - Mike Price
