He looks so much like his father! Let’s say it right away to be done with it, but sure, the stunning resemblance was a little distracting when I saw Dhani Harrison at Bardot where he was part of the free weekly ‘It’s a School Night’ on Monday night.
Of course, he was announced under his band moniker, thenewno2, and it didn’t click right away in my mind who was playing, but when I realized,… I didn’t think twice about going, even on a busy-back-to-school Monday night.
Right away I was impressed by the amount of material on stage, and when the band and Dhani Harrison took the stage, they produced a complex sound, filled with electronics and sampling, multilayered as three synths/mixers were used at the same time. As Dhani was constantly turning the knobs of one of them, I thought that the band was inclined to have more Radiohead-Massive-Attack envy than the other more obvious one.
Beside some quiet moments, their set was made of loud and hard-to-describe compositions, beautifully rendered live, and which were creating interesting melodies from a crowded and chaotic sound. How did they do that? Although ‘regular’ guitars and drums were also used, most of the time I was not been able to understand anything of what was going on, right in the middle of all this electronic manipulation and sampling which was mysteriously and unexpectedly coming out of nowhere, even bringing up some hip-hop rhythmic texture.
As I was able to see the setlist I can say they played quite a few songs from their previous album ‘You are Here’, and from their upcoming EP, EP002, and in particular ‘Live a Lie’, a song that is performed with Regina Spektor on the EP and that you can download for free on their website (http://thenewno2.com/2011/08/30/download-live-a-lie-feat-regina-spector-on-facebook). The very-guitar-driven last tune was the one which sounded the most conventional of all the songs they played, but many of them had this messy-out-of-control grandiose jamming ending that pleased the audience so much, ‘Yomp’ being the most extravagant example of all.
Dhani Harrison appeared to be very comfortable on stage, switching from the mixer to the guitar with ease, very focused and astonishingly fast at the same time. The band, which was originally a duo composed of Dhani and Oliver Hecks, has grown quite a bit as they were 6 on stage on Monday night; their second album is due in 2012, whereas their EP002 is due on September 27th after two dates next week in support of Pearl Jam.
It’s a good thing Dhani Harrison records music, and it is good for him he is recording his engaging and dynamic music under another name, but above everything, it’s a good thing he found his own voice. Just before the show, I saw and heard him introduce himself to some people with a ‘Hi I’m Dhani’ and thank them to be at the show,… he sounded so down-to-earth and totally unassuming,… and it is always so reassuring.
Setlist
Station
So Vain 930
Give you Love
Live a Lie
Wide Awake
YOMP
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