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Report: Sólstafir + Esben&tW + Obsidian Kingdom @ Hard Club

Filipe Gomes 05/12/2014 Concerts, Reports Comments Off on Report: Sólstafir + Esben&tW + Obsidian Kingdom @ Hard Club
Report: Sólstafir + Esben&tW + Obsidian Kingdom @ Hard Club

Porto’s well known Hard Club, received the most recent Sólstafir tour. Accompanied by Indie Rock group Esben and the Witch and extreme Progressive Metal band Obsidian Kingdom, we were assured to experience some pretty intense moments.

Originally from Spain, OBSIDIAN KINGDOM came onstage first, started their show in front of a not so full room, but that didn’t stop them from delivering a quite strong performance. The setlist was mostly based on the album “Mantiis” and its followup “Torn & Burnt” which is basically a record containing remixes of some of the songs from “Mantiis”. The best was kept to the end, when “Fingers in Anguish” drew the room pretty silent until “Ball-Room” followed by “And Then It Was”.

ESBEN AND THE WITCH were next. Hard Club’s Room 2 started to be better composed during their show. This band played a much less complex sonority, which abides the old saying “Less is more”. Playing a mere 4 song-long show might seem short, but when you play 10 or 14 minute long songs, the problem is not getting boring, and this trio, lead by frontwoman Rachel Davies managed to get the audience’s attention during the entire presentation, which consisted of songs from 2014’s “A New Nature” album.

Last, but not least… It was time for the band which made the room become full: Icelandic entity SÓLSTAFIR, a band which morphed it’s sound as years passed by and found their own identity. The show started with “Köld”, quickly followed by “Lágnætti”, the single from the new album “Ótta”. Frontman Aðalbjörn Tryggvason was much more communicative than the previous show in Lisbon, trying to make the audience to raise some noise, as everyone was quite silent, but silence is a more adequate atmosphere to witness a Sólstafir performance. The catchy “Þín orð” received a highly applauded response. After that, we were taken back to the new album for another couple of songs, until the most awaited moment arrived: “Fjara”. A few people had been screaming for it during the show, and they got what they wanted. Rachel Davies from Esben And The Witch joined the band on stage to perform the female vocals, a detail which stood out immediately as she started to sing. The last song to be performed took everyone years back to the “Köld” album… “Goddess of the Ages” closed the night… When some people were asking for “Ljós í stormi”, unfortunately they were unlucky.

Overall it was a good night, a good performance by the eclectic Obsidian Kingdom, the simple yet effective Esben and The Witch and a magnificent concert by Sólstafir, which lasted for 1h30m but apparently no one noticed time passing by. Let’s just hope that it won’t take them another 4 years to return to Portugal. One positive mention to the fact that the time schedules were strictly followed.

Thank you to Prime Artists.

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