Live Review: Razorlight - Cologne 2019

Die Kantine, Cologne, Germany
13th February 2019
Razorlight - “Olympus Sleeping” Tour 2019 - Support: Calva Louise

The British Indie Rock band RAZORLIGHT have recently resurfaced after a nearly ten-year hiatus, during which singer Johnny Borrell released two solo albums and a string of singles. In October 2018, the band has released their fourth album, ‘Olympus Sleeping’, which Johnny says to have “the electric energy of the first album, the Pop-Rock craftsmanship of the second and the lyrical ambition of the third”. For a few hundred people, this represented a welcome opportunity to re-connect to their idols in the cosy Kantine in Cologne.


Calva Louise

The warm-up slot for today’s concert went to the three-piece band CALVA LOUISE from London, UK. The trio is comprised of Jess (from Venezuela) on guitar/vocals, Ben (from New Zealand) on drums, and Alizon (from France) on bass guitar. Together they have released their debut album ‘Rhinoceros’ in February this year. https://www.facebook.com/calvalouise / http://www.calvalouise.com



Music & Performance
Exactly as scheduled at 8pm, the three members from CALVA LOUISE took to the stage. Front woman Jess won over the audience with both her charms in the song breaks, and her fierceness during the songs. Their music oscillated somewhere between independent pop and garage punk, and definitely had a certain edge to it, as Jess’s voice turned out to be extremely versatile, and the musical parts featured unexpected cadence, and overdriven riffage, as well as effect-heavy, melodically driven sections. It seems that CALVA LOUISE have really carved out a niche for themselves which makes it difficult to draw any parallels to existing bands. Witnessing CALVA LOUISE during their 30-minute set was definitely a treat and a welcome prelude to the main act.

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7 / 10

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Razorlight

With the first two albums, the 2004 ‘Up All Night’ and the 2006 self-titled album being multiple times platinum certified in the UK, RAZORLIGHT achieved thorough recognition in the UK and Europe during the first decade of this millennium. RAZORLIGHT opened shows for the likes of THE ROLLING STONES, OASIS and KAISER CHIEFS and they were on top of their game during the ‘Noughties’, before towards the end of the decade, the band decided to call it quits after several line-up changes and unsuccessful recording attempts. Now, singer Borrell is staging a comeback for the ‘Olympus Sleeping’ album, which leads him and his new bandmates to various European countries as well as quite a few scheduled festival appearances for summer 2019. www.razorlightofficial.com / https://www.facebook.com/razorlight



Music & Performance
At 9pm the room lights were dimmed, rumbles of electronic sounds announced the band’s entrance, and RAZORLIGHT opened their set with ‘Rip It Up’ from their 2004 debut album ‘Up All Night’. Without any break the band continued with their hit ‘In the Morning’, which hit home with the pretty diverse (age-wise) crowd of the Kantine and stirred up the level of movement in front of the stage. Borrell, who in the past was famous for his ‘big mouth reputation’ stayed notably humble and mute during the song breaks, keeping interaction with the crowd to a minimum. Instead, he and his band mates let the music speak for itself by continuing with the setlist, which relied heavily on the new album. Occasionally, the band threw in a few highlights from the past, such as the glorious ‘Golden Touch’ (also from their debut album).



However, the Cologne crowd did not seem to be in the mood for singing that night, so the supposed sing-along died down a few notes into the chorus, with Borrell having to take over. As the gig progressed, the band members loosened up noticeably, making it much more interesting to watch. For ‘In the City’, the band engaged in some sort of THE DOORS-esque escalation, which hit home with the audience. The main part of the set ended after a good hour with the sombre ballad ‘Wire to Wire’, which featured some really delicate guitar work from Borrell. Fortunately, the evening was not over yet, as the band returned for a whopping five-song encore. RAZORLIGHT closed the evening with their epic hit ‘America’ to the cheers of their audience, who certainly appreciated the return of the gifted musician Johnny Borrell and his crew.



Setlist
01. Rip It Up
02. In the Morning
03. Keep the Right Profile
04. Brighton Pier
05. Midsummer Girl
06. Golden Touch
07. I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got
08. Japanrock
09. In the City
10. Before I Fall to Pieces
11. Who Needs Love?
12. Razorchild
13. Stumble and Fall
14. Vice
15. Los Angeles Waltz
16. Olympus Sleeping
17. Wire to Wire
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18. Carry Yourself
19. Got to Let the Good Times Back into Your Life
20. Somewhere Else
21. Sorry?
22. America

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.8 / 10

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All Pictures by Keke Dombrowski (www.ktd-photography.de)