Now here’s a scoop, the much adored, two-decade parade that is US experimental rock band Xiu Xiu are in town at the ACCA and there is a murmur of expectation in the venue’s roomy bar. A sold out gig and one of only a handful in the UK for the band so you’d expect anticipation to be high but there’s something more. Jamie Stewart, Xiu Xiu’s founder and long-time band partner Angela Seo, may have skirted controversy with their politically charged, agit art music but they also command reverence. Tonight’s crowd doesn’t seem merely curious, it feels like you are amongst the devoted who know every twist and turn of this extraordinary group’s fourteen or so albums.
First up though Brighton-based electronic sound-art innovator I Am Fya has the job of filling the void until Xiu Xiu time. Some might find that a daunting prospect but here is an artist who thrives on stage, I Am Fya owns it. Last seen at ACCA supporting Creep Show her set features more from the upcoming ‘Homeland’ album (out next year via Rose Hill Records) which reflects on her pandemic stay in Barbados with her elderly parents. What comes out of tonight’s set is how her tapestry of field recordings and glitchy percussive frequencies have gained intensity.
There’s a hovering trap beat meets Tricky tension to the soundtrack and the samples of her parents weathered voices singing traditional tunes or telling home truths bring added resonance and emotional depth. Equally the multi-textured projections kaleidoscoping behind I Am Fya, highlight the narrative with each timely cut, flash and pivot. ‘The Sun Will Kill Me’, a previous single, continues to stand out, the chunky dubstep and breezy, looped singing of Amiya, the daughter of her Father’s carer, makes for a thrilling piece of experimental pop. “I’ll need to be paying her royalties one day” I Am Fya jokes.
What’s underlined once more from tonight’s set is I Am Fya doesn’t conform with the insular conventions around a lot of electronic music. Her vibrant proto-Drum and Bass, crunching dub techno plus soaring soulful vocals mean that she is a live and direct performer. She finishes with a couple of familiar I Am Fya tracks: the strident ‘Consciousness’, where her improv singing snakes House-like around a juddering, bass stomper; and the incisive ‘Fall in Love with myself’, where sharp Eartha Kitt samples set the scene for the song’s cranked up beats and ripping vocals. As she farewells, much love comes back from the crowd and you sense that I Am Fya has only just got started.
There’s something instantly relatable about a band that come out and check their own equipment before taking the stage to perform. No pretence, little interest in faux-mystique, this maybe the bedrock of Xiu Xiu’s relationship with their fans. Their entrance is just as low-key. Walking onto cheers yes, but then the three piece, Stewart on guitar, keyboardist Seo and David Kendrick at the drums, prepare slowly to an eerie silence.
It’s Kendrick’s thundering tom-toms which signal the shift. Suddenly we’re inside the full electronic squall of ‘Silver Platter’ from this year’s ‘13” …’ album. “God raised us and now he wants us to die” Stewart yowls imperiously and as his cymbal smashing duet with Yeo whips the song to a halt we definitely know where we are at. ‘Sleep Boulevard’ follows from the same album, the trio channelling a mighty alt rock roar through a disco of discontent sensibility. Stewart’s vibrato vocal effortlessly seers through while his trilling guitar dances with Angela Seo’s spiralling synths.
An older track ‘Blacks’ is the first hint that this will be no latest album promo show, the clanking electronics and drum flaying intro straining angrily before that definitive Xiu Xiu noise punk charge. What we get over the next hour plus of giddy, visceral excitement is a brilliantly paced drama shaped from their back catalogue. The many stand out moments often come from their more Avant Gard /experimental endeavours. During ‘It Comes Out As A Joke’, where Neubauten concrete beats mingle with surreal organ jingles, Stewart peacocks around the stage in an abstract dance before joining Seo and Kendrick in wild percussive shockwave. The disconcerting ‘Wig Master’ edges nearer to performance art, Seo’s detached spoken word kidding you into a full tilt, free jazz Lester Bowie skronk out, toy instruments and all. The uncompromising fan fave ‘Sad Pony Guerilla Girl’ is also re-imagined this time, less acoustic guitar, Latino toned and more spookily Phil Spector-ish, the ‘I like my neighbourhood, I like my gun’ line sounding more devastating in this current climate.
As the show unravels, the impact of the performance and the different way each of the trio respond is mesmerising. Stewart takes physicality to the max, stomping, kicking out, lashing at his guitar while Seo seems focused, deeply attentive and Kendrick paces himself intuitively between all-out volatility and intricate movements. There are points of synchronised unison, as on ‘The Real Chaos Cha Cha Cha’ where all three smash their crash cymbals in time, waiting for submission. It’s an image from the show firmly imprinted as a ‘must tell’. The between song ritual is also striking. In silence, Seo bends to adjust her pedals, Kendrick seems to rest, head bowed and Stewart crouches, takes three gulps of water, swallows then breathes deeply. The crowd are strangely hushed at these points as if needing each juncture to recuperate themselves, although as an all seater gig the strain is cerebral rather than physical.
Still the hall’s formal arrangement tonight seems to re-focus rather than dampen audience enthusiasm. So heads still shake and bodies lurch during Xiu Xiu’s more conventional alt rock bursts like ‘Suha’ and ‘T.D.F.T.W’ or the explosive electro-goth blasts of ‘Gray Death’ and ‘Jenny GoGo’. Some punters do get fidgety as the band ratchet up the pace towards the ending. “Can we stand up please” someone ironically calls out but the ringing riff of the Gen Z anthem ‘Common Loon’ and ‘Veneficum’s pounding synth grunge soon hauls more people into the aisles.
Jamie Stewart has said in the past that their “quiet stuff” could sometimes sit uncomfortably with the venues which Xiu Xiu play but ACCA seems to have satisfied all the dynamics and demographics tonight. Certainly the more restrained, lo-fi melodrama of ‘Get Up’ which closes the show and Stewart’s solo encore, the haunting, complex love song from way back ‘Fabulous Muscles’, spontaneously still the audience with their indefinable magic. Job done, Jamie Stewart blows a kiss and soon we file out drained but warmly delirious. Some brave the merch table scrum while others like me drift off in that slightly altered state which only the most significant gigs can deliver.
The Attenborough Centre For Creative Arts, Thursday 14th November 2024
Words by John Parry
Photos by Victor Frankowski
