aaamusic | On 10, May 2011

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London, 5th May

Water Rats give a warm welcome back to Absynthe Minded, one of the most innovative and promising Belgian bands in recent times and they, this quintet from Ghent, in return, chose this venue for the presentation to the Londoner public of their latest album entitled Absynthe Minded.

The performance this evening goes smooth, without any obstacles (opposite from last year) and the band started the concert with Dead on my feet, an extract of their last album, a healthy indie-pop, sweetened with the sound of the Hammond played by the keyboarder Jan Duthoy.

The front man, singer and guitarist Bert Ostyn, showed self confidence and familiarity with the business joking and interacting with the public during the whole concert. After the next tune, they followed the introduction of some samples of the new album like Weekend in Bombay, If you don’t go, I don’t go and the exhilarating Mercury, where the audience found hard not to keep the rhythm.

It is impossible not to feel the intensity coming from the stage and the ability the band has of creating wonderful melodies and musicality thanks to the chores performed by the keyboarder, followed by the violinist (guitarist?) Renaud Ghilbert and the bassist/double bassist Sergej Van Bouwel, as they showed with the nice ballad Envoi.

The last bit of the song is formed by the acclaimed My heroics part 1, impossible to be listened without letting your mind fly and Multiple Choice that can be considered in any case an experimental-alternative cover of song of The Doors and whose drummer Jakob Nachtergaele shows a secure and swinging groove that drives the public (finally) to dance and continues doing so in the last song called Stuck in reverse.

Showing creativity and an ability to mix different types of music like Indie, Pop, Jazz, Folk, Blues and Gipsy, they surely deserve to be kept in mind because I am sure they will do nothing but improving.

Author: Stefania Sorice

Photos: Abigael Chesang