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Concert Review: Unkle

Unkle at the Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA
Friday, October 26, 2007 

by Tsega Dinka
Noisetap Contributor  

Unkle's promotional tour for their new release War Stories stopped by Los Angeles' Echoplex on Friday, October 26, 2007. The band kicked off the set with a couple of instrumental tracks, beginning with "Chemistry" from the new album. The sound of guitar and heavy bass over thrashing drums filled the mid-sized venue and quickly let the crowd know that their every penny had been spent well that night.   

Following a brief interlude after "Drums of Death," James Lavelle himself stepped up for the vocals on "Hold My Hands" which had just been released as the latest single a few days prior. It was refreshing to see that Unkle’s frontman could hold his own on stage as well as he did on the record. Then came another set of songs, including "Reign" (from 2004), "Broken" featuring a live performance by Gavin Clark, and the Ian Astbury-fronted first single "Burn My Shadow." Even though Astbury's vocals for the song were replayed from a recording, the musicians made up for his absence with their stellar performance. The onslaught of driving drums and guitar along with the foreboding lyrics and the amazing psychedelic video all added up to create a charge that could be felt in the air.   

The band followed up "Burn My Shadow" with another crowd favorite, "Lonely Soul," off of their album Psyence Fiction. It was great to see that the venue was packed with die-hard Unkle fans that could recite the words to songs nearly 10 years old. "Lawless" with its synth-heavy beat and "Mayday" with its marching rhythm followed up to help carry things along into the haunting, cinematic sounds of "Price You Pay." Gavin Clark made a second appearance on stage for "Keys to the Kingdom," followed by Lavelle and special guest Chris Goss for "Morning Rage."   

Lavelle described War Stories as a California record, with quite a few tracks having been recorded out in Joshua Tree, and credited his new musical outlook to Chris Goss, co-producer of War Stories. The signature combination of trip-hop, psychedelic and synth-heavy sounds coupled with dark vocals was a perfect fit for the Echoplex and the crowd that was in attendance. The only thing I was left wishing for at the end of the night was that more vocalists from the album (Ian Astbury, Autolux, etc) had been there. Oh yeah, did I mention the encore performance of "Rabbit in Your Headlight"? If this show is coming near your town, do yourself a favor and catch it.