Gold Celeste Wowed the Crowd & Gave the OBL 'The Glow'
Hot on the heels of the release of their critically acclaimed debut album, ‘The Glow’, Oslo based Gold Celeste gigged a small promotional tour of Norway, which included a prime time slot at the renowned Sørveiv festival, supported by current darlings of the Danish media, Blaue Blume.
The promotional whirl also saw Gold Celeste tentatively dipping their toes into the wider Euro pond, with gigs lined up in Berlin and London, as well as a slot at Glimps Festival, in Ghent.
The band made their London debut with two gigs, the second of which was at uber trendy place to play, the Old Blue Last, in ultra-hip Shoreditch. With a well-balanced setlist of nine songs that included one as yet unreleased track and a cover, Gold Celeste hit the crowd right between the eyes with opener ‘Is This What You Could Not Do?. Eirik Fidjeland (who rarely takes lead vocal) showed no signs of nerves as he launched into the song, which has received airplay on BB6 Music, including a whirl by supporter of emerging artists, Tom Ravenscroft.
Front man Simen Hallset took the reins back for tranquil ballad, The Dreamers, and whilst his voice took a short while to settle, it wasn’t long before he was in his stride, even throwing out some Norwegian words of wisdom during ‘But a Poem’ for good measure. Hallset interacted well with the crowd throughout the set. In fact, it was refreshing to see a band so willing to engage with and actively encourage feedback from the crowd.
Gold Celeste are joined for live performances by friend Torstein Kvamme Holum, who certainly knows how to work a tremolo crank. Not only did he make some fine instrumental noises, he also performed backing vocals and threw in some ad lib comedy as well! That’s what I call an ‘all-round performer’.
Stand outs on the night, aside from the opener, included a stunning performance of the latest single, ‘The Wonder of Love’ which saw Fidjeland switch seamlessly from guitar to keys, and Halsett perform a near perfect live vocal, which for a guy who sings at the top of his range, is a pretty stunning feat. My vocal coach companion was completely blown away by Simen’s vocal control and pitch! High praise indeed!
Sitting at the back, out of sight for most of the gig, was Petter Haugen Andersen, whose insanely good jazzy-soul style drumming is the glue that holds the Gold Celeste sound together, and nowhere does it shine more than on ‘The Wonder of Love’. For ‘subtle n slick’ see PHA .
Other praiseworthy performances were crowd pleasing single ‘Open Your Eyes’ and my personal favourite, ‘Grand New Spin’, for which Fidjeland and Halsett swapped guitars (Fidjeland covered bass duties for the last three GC songs of the set).
However, it was a newbie track plus the cover of a Radiohead number that shot the already excited crowd into another world.
My musician friend was in rapturous awe when Fidjeland took off on ‘Hendrix Highway’ during the extended ‘jam’ instrumental that the band tagged onto the end of the as yet unrecorded, ‘NY AE’. There is absolutely no denying that what we witnessed during those 5 or so minutes was something remarkably special.
Four amazingly talented musicians did what they love to do, and do best - play music naturally, freely and wonderfully. The crowd went wild and rightly so. The guys totally nailed it with ‘NY AE’ and the jam…it brought the house down.
Last number of the night was a cover of Radiohead’s ‘Weird Fishes’ which was as good as I’ve ever heard it played; these guys certainly now how to challenge one of the greatest bands on the planet! We’ll take more of that dudes, yes please.
By now the crowd were beyond worked up, and in response to much shouting and screaming for ‘MORE’, the band, who obviously hadn’t banked on being bombarded with requests for an encore, promptly set about teaching resident ‘funny-man’ Torstein a few quick notes on the keys! It was good humoured instances like this that warmed and won over the crowd to these uber chilled and friendly Norwegians.
Music lesson finished, and much to the audiences delight, the band launched into an extended version of the stunning ‘Starchild’ bringing an end to what had been a pretty mind-blowingly performed set.
Gold Celeste may be under the music radar right now, but if they take the bull by the horns and return to London as and when they can, to build on the goodwill and momentum that they have now created, then it should only be a matter of time before they break through onto the scene.
Good news travels fast in Shoreditch!
COMMENTS
-
Interesting...
