Alcoholic Faith Mission @ The Studio at Webster Hall

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Tuesday, 04 May 2010 13:05

The Alcoholic Faith Mission show was one of those shows where afterwards you can’t bring yourself to listen to the studio album for a few days because the live performance was just so powerfully refreshing―and better than any recording could ever hope to be. All five band members (Thorben Seierø, Sune Sølund, Kristine Permild, Laurids Smedegaard, and Gustav Rasmussen) put their entire bodies into the performance, belting out phonemes with exceptionally controlled precision and stomping and shaking tambourines with such purpose that you would think their lives depended on this performance. Maybe in a way they did.

On their album Let This Be the Last Night We Care, the vocals are airy and somewhat shallow, as in Broken Social Scene’s “Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl,” but on stage, without the digital alterations, Kristine Permild’s voice sounded so delicately feminine, permeating over the otherwise all male chorus. The band’s euphoric vocal harmony is by far their most impressive asset, with all five members effortlessly lending their voices to the song while still tending to their individual instruments, giving the impression that each song truly is a group effort. The fact that there are five members, all with different instruments and sometimes with more than one also contributed to the band’s fullness and polished sound, helping them avoid the scratchy or unfinished sound that opening bands usually fall victim to.

AFM played a mix of songs from their previous album 421 Wythe Avenue, along with songs from Let This Be the Last Night We Care. This added to the performance’s sincerity and authenticity because it made it clear that they weren’t touring just to promote their new album, despite being a relatively “underground” band. Their aesthetic was also very plain, with the exception of guitarist/ trombonist Gustav Rasmussen who [unintentionally?] looked like a blonde Pee-wee Herman, with his gray suit jacket and sky-blue bowtie.

With such melancholy and somber songs, it’s fortunate that the band was so energetic and had such a positive stage presence, or the show might have left the audience with a sour, emo aftertaste. Everyone on stage had his/her eyes closed while playing “Sobriety Up and Left,” earnestly swearing “I’m sober now, It’s not too late to be with you.”

After playing songs like “Closer to Dallas” and “Education,” AFM ended their set with “Got Love? Got Shellfish!” which involved every band member yelling full-force into their microphones, “You shock me, you fuck me, you wrong me!” Bassist Sune Sølund even moved out of his corner on the stage for this song and walked around the other band members, like his energy had been culminating all night into this one moment. This was the perfect song to end the night with, ensuring that the audience would not forget the performance any time soon, and leaving them in vain cheering for an encore.

-Lindsay Sturm