The Young Gods at Islington Academy

Dealing with expectations has always been a problem in terms of live music: if you have them you should beware, because you’ll hardly ever find what you’re looking for. Luckily, yesterday at the O2 Academy in Islington this Murphy’s law was refuted with an impressively elegant and stylish live set by The Young Gods, precisely what should have been expected from this educated continental band.

In 2013, The Young Gods’ music sounds unique, incisive and most of all as devastating as ever. The Swiss post-industrial band, made up of drummer Bernard Trontin, vocalist Franz Treichler and Cesare Pizzi behind the Nova samplers, impress with their natural elegance thanks to a massive repertoire of notable hits, such as the Did you miss me, Envoyé!, Longue Route, Skinflowers.

From The Young Gods in 1987 through to 1989’s L’Eau Rouge, from T.V. Sky in 1991 to 1996’s Heaven Deconstruction, until the recent 2010 Everybody Knows, the Swiss trio have genuinely broken the boundaries of the relation between experimentation and music, creating templates and music canons that influenced several bands after them (Nine Inch Nails more than any other).

At the Academy, after two boring opening acts, the band dressed in black came onstage in the dark, promoting the 25^th anniversary of their first homonymous release. The band mostly played songs from their first two albums in front of a mature adult audience. The Young Gods’ music is a theatrical post-industrial danse macabre, made with drums and guitar loops obsessively repeated, together with the husky and gruff voice of a melodramatic chansonnier. 

For sure one of the more remarkable live performances of 2013, thanks to the band’s skills and mode. Out there youngsters should go and study in The Young Gods’ school of style.

Lorenzo Cibrario
Photos: Francesca Capra

For further information and future events visit The Young Gods’ website here.