Bell Witch
Alice, Vanløse - 2024
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
With their latest record securely in the box, it was time for Bell Witch to once again visit Denmark. Impressively, this would make their fifth visit to our fair little country (sixth if you count Stygian Bough in there), and on this tour they would even make two stops in Denmark; Vanløse (a suburb to Copenhagen), and later Aarhus in the other end of the land. Vanløse was in fact only the third stop on this tour, and we felt highly privileged to have these masters of doom back with us.
Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate is an album I haven’t had time to spend too much time with yet, regrettably, but it feels very much in line with what the band was setting up on Mirror Reaper, giving the organ a bit more room front and centre. On stage, we still only had the two members, Dylan Desmond (bass/vocals) and Jesse Schreibman (drums/vocals), but even though the organ wasn’t physically there, things had still expanded for the band. Compared to the last time I saw the band, back in 2018, Desmond had upgraded his six-string bass for a seven-string one, and Schreibman had added to his drumkit with a large gong in the back, and a large metal rod or tube, something like an overgrown chime, which he would occasionally beat with a hammer. Schreibman also had an array of drumsticks with different soft and hard heads to further vary his sound.
Luckily for us, the sound was really good in Alice, so all the little intricacies the band had in store for us, came through in a highly acceptable way.
The performance was, much like last time, kept to a bare minimum however. I don’t think either person uttered so much as a word while on stage, except for the lyrics of the song of course, and only Schreibman gave a slight wave, as they walked off after the show was done. That’s alright though, as Bell Witch’s concerts are much more about the inner journey of the participants, than it is about physical action. If you came for the moshpit, you’d be sorely disappointed, but if you were ready to float away on an auditory adventure, then it doesn’t get much better than this.
Still, Bell Witch had expanded in this sense as well, as they too made use of the film screen backdrop, just like Fvnerals had done before them. I’m not entirely sure which band came up with the idea, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was Bell Witch, as their visuals were a little bit more connected and special. It started out with a candle being lit by an out of focus odd looking character during the opening organ piece, and when the rest of the instruments joined in, the candle was snubbed out, and we were transported to alternatively a forest setting, desert landscape, and a beach. It was all rather captivating, and worked perfectly well with the musical delivery, like a modernised silent movie showing where they back in the day used to have live music accompanying the film - here it was just the other way around, with the film accompanying the live music.
It’s rather hard to go in depth about what was going on at this show, since, you know, not a whole lot was going on, but trust me when I say that what we did get was as wonderful as this band has proven to be, time and time again. Now I can hardly wait for Future’s Shadow Part 2 to drop, so we’ll have them back here once again for another great show.
Setlist:
The Clandestine Gate
Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate is an album I haven’t had time to spend too much time with yet, regrettably, but it feels very much in line with what the band was setting up on Mirror Reaper, giving the organ a bit more room front and centre. On stage, we still only had the two members, Dylan Desmond (bass/vocals) and Jesse Schreibman (drums/vocals), but even though the organ wasn’t physically there, things had still expanded for the band. Compared to the last time I saw the band, back in 2018, Desmond had upgraded his six-string bass for a seven-string one, and Schreibman had added to his drumkit with a large gong in the back, and a large metal rod or tube, something like an overgrown chime, which he would occasionally beat with a hammer. Schreibman also had an array of drumsticks with different soft and hard heads to further vary his sound.
Luckily for us, the sound was really good in Alice, so all the little intricacies the band had in store for us, came through in a highly acceptable way.
The performance was, much like last time, kept to a bare minimum however. I don’t think either person uttered so much as a word while on stage, except for the lyrics of the song of course, and only Schreibman gave a slight wave, as they walked off after the show was done. That’s alright though, as Bell Witch’s concerts are much more about the inner journey of the participants, than it is about physical action. If you came for the moshpit, you’d be sorely disappointed, but if you were ready to float away on an auditory adventure, then it doesn’t get much better than this.
Still, Bell Witch had expanded in this sense as well, as they too made use of the film screen backdrop, just like Fvnerals had done before them. I’m not entirely sure which band came up with the idea, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was Bell Witch, as their visuals were a little bit more connected and special. It started out with a candle being lit by an out of focus odd looking character during the opening organ piece, and when the rest of the instruments joined in, the candle was snubbed out, and we were transported to alternatively a forest setting, desert landscape, and a beach. It was all rather captivating, and worked perfectly well with the musical delivery, like a modernised silent movie showing where they back in the day used to have live music accompanying the film - here it was just the other way around, with the film accompanying the live music.
It’s rather hard to go in depth about what was going on at this show, since, you know, not a whole lot was going on, but trust me when I say that what we did get was as wonderful as this band has proven to be, time and time again. Now I can hardly wait for Future’s Shadow Part 2 to drop, so we’ll have them back here once again for another great show.
Setlist:
The Clandestine Gate
Bell Witch
