Its not often, as a self respecting music fan, you find yourself stood watching a covers band. They’re not fashionable and are generally derided apart from perhaps at weddings or specialist cover band festivals (yeah, they exist…) Good job that IntroducingLive are anything but your average covers band then!
Having previously taken on the task of recreating the album Endtroducing by DJ Shadow (hence the name?) they have moved on in recent times to the legendary Discovery album by those two robot characters you might have heard of. The aim is simple, to replicate the album in full, live, using vocals, synthesisers, drums, guitars and anything else they can get their hands on. A daunting task, maybe, but one that they wouldn’t realistically have taken on the road if it wasn’t any good. Naturally it was utterly fantastic.
Opening with ‘Robot Rock’ (yes, really) they started as they meant to go on, utilising 4 synthesisers, a drumpad, two guitars, a bass and a drumkit – phew! Yeah this is far more live than Daft Punk‘s own live show!! It is quite literally the real deal.
Quite apart from anything else the way the songs are replicated is authentic and very similar to the originals, utilising vocal aids to get those robot vocals just right. It was the perfect boozy Friday night and just as I was thinking how well the show would go down at a festival I discover that indeed Rob da Bank has already got them for Bestival and Camp Bestival, and the group were headed to Lovebox the next day.
Following on from ‘Robot Rock’ there was a range of classics, initially from the album itself such as ‘One More Time’ and ‘Aerodynamic’ as well as ‘Digital Love’. The way the guitar was utilised as the main proponent of the track on ‘One More Time’ was intuitive as well as danceable, and the live drums added a real kick to the overall sound that you just don’t get on a recorded version. A real highlight was the virtuoso guitar playing during the breakdown of Aerodynamic where that riff was played on a seemingly custom electric guitar which had had its entire neck removed.
As if those four belters were not enough we were then treated to ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ and what struck me was how well the seemingly impossible vocals were done live, utilising two members. Even more impossible, you’d think, would be ‘Technologic’ – which was completed by just the lead vocalist – admittedly with a long list of the lyrics! Only fair!!
Further highlights came in the shape of ‘Face to Face’ and ‘Too Long’ with the latter being particularly well done with additional vocals from a third member who was particularly proficient with this track! What really struck me was how easy they made it all look when it reality it must have taken a great many hours of learning the tracks, rehearsing, searching for the right equipment…. the show is a super achievement and one the members should be really proud of.
As the show got towards its conclusion there were of course some obligatory classics that don’t appear on Discovery itself such as ‘Da Funk’, of course the crowd didn’t mind and were really lapping it up by now! The final curtain was to be one five minute track which they’d previously recorded with Rob Da Bank for a session which was quite literally the history of Daft Punk in the minimix style – whereby as many tracks as possible were squeezed into the allotted five minutes.
This took in some of the tracks we’d already heard as well as including some snippets of tracks from the new album such as (of course) ‘Get Lucky‘ and ending memorably with ‘Contact’, the one that sounds like blasting off into space.
As you might have guessed by this gushing review, it was incredible and an absolute must see if you get the opportunity. If you’re going to Bestival, do not miss this!!
Remaining Live Dates:
25 July – Jazz Café London
04 August – Camp Bestival
07 September – Bestival
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