It's for helping you reach your musical climax safely
It’s not for the cock, it’s for the Final Fantasy.
Owen Pallett, Lightspeed Champion/ Union Chapel/ 25.01.10
Tonight is a big night for Domino. As well as These New Puritans giving their new album it’s first live outing while backed by an orchestra somewhere in Shepherd’s Bush, two of their solo artists who are releasing sophomore and debut albums for the label this year are here at Union Chapel. Lightspeed Champion and Owen Pallett are two who, while being worlds apart, somehow still manage to stay in the same postcode in terms of style. Unlike Owen, Devonte Hynes is still playing behind his Lightspeed Champion moniker, and considering what a huge departure this style is from his previous project Test Icicles where he assumed the character of Dev Metal suggests that there are many other musical faces to the performer. That’s not to say that he doesn’t throw himself into the character he’s playing tonight as his aesthetics compliment how his music sounds and is performed. From his performance, which was announced just hours before the show, he’d have you believe that his status as an indie hipster is just a creation of some far off press department as his charm comes across as a pleasing accidental bi-product of his performance. In between songs he is polite, slightly shy and completely without any air of pretension. His performances are heartfelt and sincere with the keyboard sounding particularly powerful throughout the chapel.
When Dev finishes he is met with a hug from Owen which seems to also be a very public and very enthusiastic embrace of the headliner’s new relationship with Domino and himself as a performer no longer playing through Final Fantasy but stamping his own name firmly on his solo work. As usual he sets up his own equipment on stage, walks off and returns to a rapturous applause from the sold out venue. Perhaps less unusual is the fact he’s joined by another musician who adds everything from guitar to the occasional whistle giving the songs a full and more complete sound. Especially those from the new record ‘Heartland’ (which Owen assures us is not a concept album) which is much more ambitious in going beyond his signature looped violin, which is by no means less impressive when used this evening showing his innate skill and precision timing. The two musicians have a good humored rapport with each other and Pallett seems very at home speaking to the audience, even managing to come back from a mistake turning it into a funny little anecdote, the mark of a good performer. By the end of the night it seem very fitting that the last venue he did a solo show as Final Fantasy is where he plays his first as Owen Pallett, the former filled with mysterious light shows while tonight seems more open and simple like the man himself. Final Fantasy is dead, long live Owen Pallett.
Lightspeed Champion-No Surprise (live on BBC 6 Music)
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