Live report: Housewife Lovers + Death By Kite @ IAT! Clubnight #3, Debaser, Malmö 11/08/07
Packed with confidence, Housewife Lovers entered the stage and blew the crowd away. Sure, their minimalist postpunk sometimes becomes an end in itself, but what a ride it is! The brilliant little tunes with high pitched falsetto vocals are certainly proof of greater things to come and I imagine that the talk around town will increase after shows like these. The take of having Tobias Lilja do a remix on "Dancing" is a smart move, especially since it's a damn good original song as well. It even got some parts of the crowd doing just what the song title says! The flirtations with Bob Hund are there as well as, to some extent, The Make Up. The wonderfully intense "Weapons and guns" is disarming and kind of gives you a feeling of how the meeting between The Velvet Underground and The Posies would sound like. All in all; three guitars, one drum kit and vocals is sometimes all it takes to create indie magic.
Seeing that this was the first gig for Death By Kite since the dropout of drummer Kristian (one day before a small tour in Germany, 10 days before this gig), they did an excellent job. The stand-in drummer Morten, also the head of the bands record label Quartermain Records, played as if he has been the permanent drummer in DbK for years. And in a way he has, at least as a fourth member since he's been the band's sound engineer on the road for two years. He also recorded the latest self-titled album. And to quote bass player Sidsel: "...plus, he's a drummer. It was an obvious choice." As stated before, the influences from Sonic Youth and Joy Division are present throughout every song performed and it's done with such ferocity that it never is a question whether it's a carbon copy case or simply a tribute to those bands. It's definitely a tribute, no doubt about that. But hey, these Danes are indeed capable of writing headstrong songs. "Dare I eat a peach?", "Himmelfahrtskommando" and the indie hit "Bhf. Asta" are songs Peter Hook and Thurston Moore would be proud of. Singer/guitarist Bjørn Lange has a voice reminiscent to Brian Molkos which is a compliment. The anxiety and the high notes of the vocals accompany the music perfectly and if the band just finds a permanent drummer and varies the songs a bit more, the world is theirs to take. Mark my words.
Text by Jonas Appelqvist
Pics by Sofia Qvarnström