Empress AD and the Power of a Live Performance

Before I begin, have a quick watch of this:



Heavy. Riffy. Powerful.

I'm personally not that much of a fan of scream-vocals. I also have to admit that I'm a guitar player, interested in Progressive genres, so I lick my lips at the thought of irregular time-signatures and 2 to 3-part vocal harmony in a heavy-ish setting. I am, therefore, also aware that a lot of people may not be into this (you, reading this right now, may hate it, for example). My intention here is not to persuade you into anything. I have no strategy to make you fall in love with a band that I already feel that way inclined for. This is to remind you of something that you probably have experienced before. I'm almost certain you will have, actually, because if you're voluntarily reading this (and I haven't inboxed you on Facebook nagging you to check it out, for example), then you will more-than-likely be an avid music-lover, or something of that nature. The purpose here is to remind you of the overwhelming power that a band or artist can force upon you with their performance. I have seen multiple artists that have, at the very least, changed my life for a short 24-48 hour stint, as I felt the after-effects of their blisteringly impressionable performance. Biffy Clyro, Jamie Cullum, Arcane Roots, Paramore, Press to Meco, to name a personal few. Empress AD fit this criteria.

It was April 13, 2014. I didn't remember the date really, I'm not that obsessive. I was 24-hours returned from a mini-tour with my old band, feeling decent about our performances. I think you can see where this is going. We got our butts kicked the next night. If you looked at the hyperlink at the start of this paragraph, you may have noticed that it was an Arcane Roots gig - a band that I was already obsessed with (I just saw them a few weeks ago again), and there was support from Boy Jumps Ship - a band that are local, and I knew mainly through a friend of a friend, that my band supported previously. But it was Empress AD, a band that I had no previous knowledge of, that really stole the show in my eyes. Granted, Arcane Roots killed it, and were, in my opinion, the best band of the night, but it was the unexpected nature of Empress's impact that I took away with me.

If you watched the first link, watch this now. They're tight. I know being 'tight' isn't the be all and end all, but, its something to appreciate, and, in my opinion, when music as dynamic and as dense as heavy rock often is, an ability to be tight is sometimes lost in the sheer volume of the performance. Biffy, for example, really weren't too tight for a long time, but their music had so much energy, they were still a great live band. But Empress haven't ignored it. (They also have a machine for a drummer, which helps a lot).

These guys catered for my every need at the time. As already admitted, I'm not a fan of dirty vocals. BUT, their riffs blow my mind, as does their often subtle use of odd meters, and all that fancy stuff that culminates in what my best friend lovingly refers to as 'd***head music'. I'm trying to express how all of the things I feel are completely relatable to almost every music lover, of course with the criteria altered into the musical characteristics that tickle you instead of myself.

Look at the band Tool, for example. They excite me with the manner in which they go about composition, and their way of performing is revolutionary - the band members are almost entirely immersed in darkness on stage, and a visual arts performance is played on a large projector about and around them, in order to completely destroy the way we view a band and create a refreshing alternative. However, although I have no first-hand evidence, they are often described as 'dull' live. The concept is refreshing, but, when executed, it is only refreshing for so long, and a 90-minute performance with no interaction between the band and audience can leave a listener feeling somewhat empty. My point is that we may have found the optimum performance scenario, and there's nothing more refreshing than when it is executed beautifully. Empress AD did that, Arcane Roots did that, Queen did this, The Who did this, thousands of bands did this.

But it's still special for everyone involved when it happens.