The Sirens – The Garage, London – October 16 2014 (Live Review)
Monday, 20 October 2014
Written by Alec Chillingworth
Not content with having fronted three hugely influential bands – the Gathering, Leaves' Eyes and The 3rd And The Mortal – its seems that Anneke van Giersbergen, Liv Kristeen and Kari Rueslåtten are in the midst of a self-celebratory ceremony that's not, well, shit. Too many bands revisit goldmines from their past only to dig up skeletons of former glories, but the Sirens are a breath of fresh air, rolling out songs from each of its members' careers in fine style.
Kicking off with a rollicking rendition of van Giersbergen's Treat Me Like A Lady, the trio storm the stage in a cacophony of three-part harmonies, complete with bobbing heads and smiles that could be mistaken for melon slices in Tesco. You can act as hard as you like on stage, but the fact that these ladies have the time of their lives every night is something truly spectacular.
Of course, three vocalists bearing shit-eating grins would count for naught were the music utter dross. However, the melodies that splurge into the modestly filled Garage tonight are high quality and dashes of doom, euro-pop, gothic and more rear their heads. Van Giersbergen's tunes are more upbeat beasts, leaving all in attendance wondering why this woman hasn't conquered our airwaves.
A revolving-door situation is in place for the gig, with the trio chopping and changing throughout a 100 minute set.
Kristeen and van Giersbergen duet on the title-track of Kristeen's new album, 'Vervain', with spectacular results but elsewhere, some are a smidgen less successful. Kristeen's appearance during Rueslåtten’sTrollferd is something of an odd one. It’s a stripped-down, ghostly ballad that usually revels in the bare spotlight, but here that quality is lost.
This being said, it's a tiny nit to pick in an otherwise sterling showing. Van Giersbergen brings the fun, Kristeen lays on the drama and Rueslåtten weaves a spell that's really got to be seen to be believed. This is three of the best vocalists in the game, full stop, playing songs together on the same stage. If the song they've penned together, Sisters Of The Earth, is anything to go by, then we’re right to have very high hopes for the Sirens.
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