Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Parlotones, The

Details: Written by: Sebastian Huhn; Published: 28 October 2010

Zeche, Bochum, Germany
27th October 2010
The Parlotones, Fiction Plane

To be quite honest with you, I didn’t really know what to expect from this evening since I’ve not attended a show of either FICTION PLANE or THE PARLOTONES before. Sometimes that raises anxiety for a possible fail of both bands, which is admittedly unlikely. Here I felt nothing but curiosity and it turned out it was justified.

Fiction Plane

FICTION PLANE started under the name SANTA’S BOYFRIEND in 2001 before changing the name subsequently. They debuted with ‘Everything Will Be OK’ in 2003, spawning the single release ‘Hate’. The second one ‘Left Side of the Brain’ followed in 2007, alongside a support slot in the reunion tour of THE POLICE. The band has also played on many large European festivals like Pinkpop or Rock am Ring. Their latest album ‘Sparks’ hit stores in May. FICTION PLANE is Joe Sumner (lead vocals, bass), Seton Daunt (guitar) and Pete Wilhoit (drums). http://www.fictionplane.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/fictionplane

Music & Performance
The band around Joe Sumner (some might already know he’s the son of STING) made a kick start into the evening with a fast and easy indie rocker called ‘Two Sparks’, made to get one onto their feet right away and at least with a few people the track already did in the beginnings while Joe did the multi-tasking job of playing bass, doing vocals and dancing around. Next song ‘Out Of My Face’ struck darker tones and was more located in the mid-tempo area. The following one was opened with an incredible vocal intro “It’s a lie if I lie right here.” And that level of performance was kept the whole song through before with the next tune a good injection of energy got added.

‘Revenge’ was the motto and dancing what was asked for, and they indeed danced a lot to that track, happily recognized on stage. That he not only could handle his bass very well, Joe showed on the acoustically infected ‘Drink’, a very well-executed track I have to say. ‘You Know you’re Good’ ended the nice set and show with the audience getting asked to “Lalalalala” first, before some of them would break into dancing.

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.5 / 10

The Parlotones

South-African THE PARLOTONES have started as a little light in their native, playing to little audiences, but through the years and with albums such as ‘Episoda’ and the follow-up ‘Radiocontrolledrobot’, they literally worked their way up the ladder, and every new album saw them incorporating new elements into their sound structure, bringing it to multi-faceted dimensions. The preliminary peak of that evolution was reached with the release of their latest album ‘Stardust Galaxies’ which was certified gold within the week of its release. THE PARLOTONES are Glenn Hodgson (bass guitar, piano, backing vocals), Paul Hodgson (lead guitar, keyboard), Kahn Morbee (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Neil Pauw (drums). http://www.theparlotones.net/ / http://www.myspace.com/theparlotones

Music & Performance
It wouldn’t take long after the sound check was done that the main band of the evening, THE PARLOTONES, would hit the stage, warmly welcomed. They just needed to start the chords of the opener ‘Life Design’ and the crowd was with them, clapping along loudly to the rhythms. A reaction that warmed the band’s hearts as singer Kahn told us afterwards. ‘I’m Only Human’ treated spherical waters and highlighted the front man’s mellow vocals perfectly as would do many of the following tracks like the heart-rending ‘Bird In Flight’ or the brilliantly performed ‘Stars Fall Down’ that just made everyone watch the vocal performance in awe and dream themselves away while the tale of fleeting time was told. Normally, if those kind of rather calm and melancholic songs come in a row, many people tend to get bored. Not so this time around since it was just too intriguing with how much feeling and startling musicianship they were performed.

Before something driving came up again, we were bearing witness of a little acoustic showcase of ‘All You Need Is Love’, sung along by everyone. The song that got the fire burning again was ‘Rock Paper Scissors’. Then, ‘Remember When…’ served us with a clapping dance of Kahn. One of the last songs in the set ‘Fly To The Moon’ features the line “And We’ll Dream With Open Eyes”, exactly what everyone was doing at the time. The last song of the main set was called ‘Push Me To The Floor’, inviting to dance one more time. Of course, the guys came back for some more tunes, celebrated by the crowd and leaving them with nothing but happy faces.

Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Light:. 8
Total: 8 / 10