The post may as well begin with another gooey confession, namely that I love The Horrors. I didn’t always love them, mind you, their first album was musically pretty much off my radar, and I had a good chuckle or two over their gothic meets geometry outfits. Whatever then happened to them around their second album was actually nothing short of a miracle- out go the short angry punkish yelps, in come long shoegaze anthems. Of course they’re not really a shoegaze band, and they don’ completely fit other genres either- and it’s exactly this borderline nature of their music that makes me love them.
So I was very prepared to give them the top spot just as I did last time they played on Sziget- when their afternoon set was as flawless as the ridiculous timing allowed it to be. Only this time it didn’t quite work out as expected- maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the crowd still on a come down after a decidedly different type of performance by Gogol Bordello, maybe it was Faris having one of those days we all have. For the first songs something didn’t quite click and the band seemed very aware of it, being more jittery than usual with Faris’, ahem, dancing taking on a decidedly dervish prey to the hives nature.
They did however make it back on track and there were a couple of songs in there that made me grin with delight, now then, this IS The Horrors. And the end, well, it was special in a very horrors-y way: Faris took a jump into the crowd, which was alternatively interpreted as a bungled stage dive attempt or simply his way of signing out from a performance that probably didn’t satisfy him all that much. Either way, he just left into the sweltering early evening heat only to be later spotted at various venues around the island.
But before signing of in an abrupt fashion as well, we must make it clear that this wasn’t a bad performance by the usual standards, it’s just that we set the bar so high for The Horrors that occasionally the only way out is a dive under it.
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