And So I Watch You From Afar - Scala, London - Tuesday 3rd May 2011 (Live Review)
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Written by Ben Bland
Anyone who has seen And So I Watch You From Afar before will surely be aware that the Northern Irish quartet are one of the finest live acts in the country right now. Very rarely has the phrase “blood, sweat and tears” been more appropriate in regard to describing an act onstage. The blood is spilt as guitarists Tony Wright and Rory Friers throw themselves across the stage with totally reckless abandon. The sweat drowns the front rows of the crowd who split themselves neatly between the headbangers and the pogoing loons. The tears are tears of joy.
Opening for ASIWYFA is in fact a bit of a pointless exercise in many ways. No matter how good a band plays prior to ASIWYFA taking to the stage they have to live with the fact that, by the end of the evening, a significant amount of the people who watched them will have forgotten all about their set as a result of the brilliance of the headliners. Exeter’s The Computers are a decent enough band, despite having possibly the dullest band name in the history of time. Their ramshackle indie punk stylings are reminiscent of early Manic Street Preachers and the band even dress all in white to ram home the point. With frontman Alex seemingly as comfortable in the crowd as he is with his band mates onstage, the band are undeniably fairly entertaining even if they seem to lack a little nous with regard to memorable songwriting at this early stage in their career. Mojo Fury may be another Northern Irish quartet but, unlike the headliners, have hit on an alt-rock sound that plants itself somewhere between Nine Inch Nails and Biffy Clyro. The pulsing synths of 'We Should Just Run Away' jump out of the speakers with the ferocity of a very hungry lion and the jerky riffing of 'The Mann' provide moments of excellence but they suffer from not being as visually exciting as either of the acts bookending their set. Nevertheless the band are clearly an extremely promising act, both live and in the studio.
You have probably already got the impression from this review that I think And So I Watch You From Afar are a brilliant live band. Put simply this is because they are a brilliant live band. Every time I witness them play a show I come away struggling to think of a new superlative to describe their breathtaking performances. Of course it is not surprising that the band have honed their live show to the point of near perfection. They are seemingly on a quest to tour as much as they can without pushing their bodies past the physical limit and are possibly also on a mission to play any festival that would possibly consider taking them. These four guys clearly love playing live and watching them is a constantly exhilarating adrenaline rush.
Tonight material from new album 'Gangs' slots in to the set like they have been playing it from their earliest shows with 'Search:Party:Animal' and 'Lifeproof' being especially potent at prompting excitement in the adoring masses watching on. As ever though the classic live ASIWYFA anthems are the ones that make the place go mental. Perennial encore favourite 'Set Guitars to Kill' is the most obvious choice of any ASIWYFA song for winning a ‘best live song ever’ award but it is given a run for its money by the likes of 'S is for Salamander' and 'If it Ain’t Broke, Break it'. 'Don’t Waste Time Doing Things You Hate' (aka. the song from the first album that has any kind of vocals in it) is a moment of particular joy as the crowd bawls back every syllable at the band with starry eyed devotion and surprise second encore 'Clench Fists, Grit Teeth...GO!' sees a good thirty or forty people join the band onstage to conclude the night.
Seeing the reaction to the band by the assembled masses from the view granted by said stage invasion only reinforces what I already knew. This band slays...forget the bigger bands; if you want some action then ASIWYFA is the only act to see.
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You have probably already got the impression from this review that I think And So I Watch You From Afar are a brilliant live band. Put simply this is because they are a brilliant live band. Every time I witness them play a show I come away struggling to think of a new superlative to describe their breathtaking performances. Of course it is not surprising that the band have honed their live show to the point of near perfection. They are seemingly on a quest to tour as much as they can without pushing their bodies past the physical limit and are possibly also on a mission to play any festival that would possibly consider taking them. These four guys clearly love playing live and watching them is a constantly exhilarating adrenaline rush. 
