WATCHING ALCEST WITHOUT WEED IS LIKE HAVING SEX WITH A CONDOM
Last night Vince and I went to check out Alcest’s first ever NYC show at The Studio at Webster Hall. For a variety of reasons I won’t bore you with, neither of us had been able to smoke prior to the gig; nor did we have any weed on us, which is just as well, as this isn’t really the kind of venue where you could get away with smoking anyway – the staff would surely spot you and have you ejected in about five seconds flat. And so were confined to PBRs to, uh, expand our minds for the show.
And so we were maybe halfway through the first song when Vince turned to me and said, “I really wish we were high.”
“I was just thinking that,” I said to Vince. “Also, I kinda wish we were at a Gojira show.”
“I was just thinking that!” Vince laughed. “Why is that?”
I shrugged and suggested: “Because both Alcest and Gojira are French?”
Vince nodded knowingly. That made sense.
None of this is to say that Alcest didn’t put on an excellent show. They did. Sure, Alcest mastermind Neige had lost his voice, and consequently turned all vocal duties over to co-guitarist Zero (at least, I assume it was Zero; honestly, Neige is really the only dude in this band I’m familiar with, so it could have been Soupy Sales in a wig for all I know). And Zero acquitted himself admirably, so I can’t really complain.
But everything from the mellow, meditative nature of the music to the fact that the band was bathed in the same soft blue glow that characterizes the cover art for their latest release, Écailles de Lune, just seemed to scream “YOU SHOULD BE HIGH RIGHT NOW.”
And so seeing Alcest was like having sex with a condom: sure, it was really good, but you just knew it could be so much better.
And, uh, unfortunately, that’s all I really have to say about it. I’ve never really bothered to learn any Alcest song titles because most of them are in French and I just can’t be bothered, but I will say they played that one song that’s really soft and relaxing.
We missed show openers Have a Nice Life, although we did catch woe, who were also really good. I don’t think they were Wolves in the Throne Room or Krallice good, but they’re totally worth checking out if you get chance.
-AR
