By Louis O’Sullivan, Second Year, English and Philosophy
Walking into Strange Brew, I was reminded of how intimate the venue is. With The Antlers’ music taking up a small but notable portion of my Liked Songs, their fame was perhaps overblown in my mind. This was of very little issue, however, all the better to make my way to the front row and wait for the opener to kick off the night alongside Big Jeff.
Julie Odell’s raspy voice and stripped-back instrumentation– something of a theme for the evening– was a great introduction for the main event, and although some songs appeared to blend and become slightly synonymous, something like a song called ‘What the F**k’ is bound to attract some attention.
When Peter Silberman and drummer Michael Lerner arrived, I was slightly wondering whether or not they had left behind a friend, but looking over their history, it is clear The Antlers is most certainly not an ensemble band, as Silberman was once the sole member behind the name.
They began with ‘Consider the Source’, the opener from their newest album, Blight, which set the tone of environmental anxiety from the off. Blight itself is heavily centred on themes surrounding change, waste and the natural world, something that is not too difficult to discern as Silberman murmurs ‘What becomes of what I throw away? / Broken cord, takeout tray’.
Silberman’s voice is noticeably unique, and its tender, feminine quality is what gives many of their songs their distinctness from other artists that may have a similar sound. And, towards the end of the more swung ‘Intruders’, Silberman’s falsetto reminded me of how when I heard them first, I had wrongly assumed it was a female singer.
By the time we had reached another favourite from Blight, ‘Carnage’, the night had felt rather quiet, something to be expected from only two people on stage. However, in what one could only call an advertisement for guitar pedals, Silberman worked up wave after wave of looping, reverberating notes that crashed down at the end of the song, and broke the crowd out of somewhat of a stupor.
I came to know The Antlers– as I expect many did– through their 2009 concept album Hospice, which tells a loose and obviously light-hearted story of a nurse falling in love with his terminally ill patient as she rages at him and the dying of the light in equal measures. I knew there could be no way they would ignore the album, but even so I was relieved when I heard the first, pulsing notes of ‘Kettering’ from Silberman, who had by now moved onto the keyboard.
The lyrics of ‘Kettering’ are predictably sad, yet beautiful, but once Silberman had finished singing and he kicked yet another pedal into life that I truly enjoyed this performance of the song, as to hear such a loud sound come from one instrument was really very commendable.
Odell returned for the encore, and added a refreshing element to the drone of Silberman’s voice and instruments, whilst Lerner kept time in the background. They finished with a duo of messages, one concerning the end of the world, and the other concerning the end of the world. Silberman expressed his worries about the climate and environment, as well as commenting on war, before stating his solidarity with ‘Iran and Palestine and Lebanon and Ukraine’.
Louis O’Sullivan
Hanno Sie
The final song was ‘Ahimsa’, the name meaning ‘do no harm’ in Sanskrit, which preached Silberman’s Buddhist and pacifist view surrounding current events. The chorus is simply the words ‘no violence’ in repetition, which I find to be difficult to interpret in more ways than one, but it was a calm end to the night nonetheless.
I left with very little disappointment other than that they didn’t play a personal favourite, ‘Sylvia’, although that is rare to hear live. If you are often concerned about how many car batteries you are throwing into the ocean, Blight may just be the album for you, but even if you aren’t, The Antlers have plenty of music to be enjoyed, from the silent, to the very very loud moments.
Featured image: Epigram / Louis O’SullivanHave you listened to Blight?
