20116

The Horrors played House of Vans with Spires (pics, setlist)

photos by Ebru Yildiz; words by Bill Pearis

The Horrors @ House of Vans 4/29/2014
The Horrors
The Horrors

With a new album and an impending appearance at this weekend’s Austin Psych Fest, UK band The Horrors stopped in NYC last night (4/29) to play a free show at House of Vans. Cold, rainy anorak weather and the venue’s warehouse space made for a good setting for The Horrors’ widescreen, if gloomy, rock. As the new Luminious isn’t out till next week (5/6), the band opened with a few older songs: “Mirror’s Image” and “Scarlett Fields” from 2009’s Primary Colours, and “I Can See Through You” from 2011’s Skying in between.

The Horrors’ 10-song set only hit on three of Luminous‘ tracks: the lovely “I See You,” plus the Madchester-funky “In and Out of Sight” and current, Chameleons-esque single “So Now You Know.” I wish they’d played a couple more, especially “Change Your Mind,” the closest the band has ever come to a ballad and maybe the best song on the album. HoV’s boomy acoustics work well with the band’s spacey sound which is miles away from their gothpunk days of “Sheena is a Parasite” (they didn’t play anything from their first album). Despite using cool old fashioned film loop projections, The Horrors are not the most engaging band to watch, but if your goal is to close your eyes and bliss out, they sounded pretty good.

Opening the night were locals Spires who have gone under some renovations in the past couple months, changing drummers, second guitar and adding a third who also played keyboard. They’re still making jangly psych-pop, but sound a little less overtly ’60s retro (though perhaps more ’80s “Paisley Underground” retro). In between sets, Darkside’s Dave Harrington kept things hopping on the decks.

Pictures of the whole evening and Horrors’ setlist are in this post. More below…

Darkside’s Dave Harrington

The Spires

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The Horrors

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The Horrors

SETLIST: The Horrors @ House of Vans 4/29/2014
Mirror’s Image
I Can See Through You
Scarlet Fields
In and Out of Sight
I See You
Endless Blue
So Now You Know
Sea Within A Sea
Still Life
Moving Further Away