Abe Vigoda OX4 Festival @ The Bullingdon, Oxford 9/10/10
3/5
By: Liane Escorza
At The Bullingdon in Oxford, hype is building up around Abe Vigoda’s set as part of the ongoing OX4 festival. The place is tiny and packed, sweat evaporating into the darkness, body heat emanating in auras. People eagerly wait to quench their artistic thirst and fulfil their sonic expectations. But what Abe Vigoda deliver is curiously muddy, obscured, and somewhat indigestible.
Granted, their 2 LP body of work, (2008’s Skeleton and this year’s Crush) is similarly haphazard in approach, a DYI version of fun with tropical nods, punk rock noises and plenty of reverb in the recipe. Bass lines and drums are heavy, vocals dissonant and lo-fi. There’s an atmosphere in the air for sure, but not of the totally positive kind. The band seem to feel as ill at ease as the crowd, perhaps something we can blame on the lack of air conditioning?
Whatever the situational difficulties tonight, it’s unfortunate that the laid back, joyous attitude of Abe Vigoda’s fine albums is not as easily transferred onstage. The beats are muffled, the voice sounds dusty and diluted, the guitar is a doodle. ‘Throwing Shade’ brings a little colour and freshness to the set, but it alone cannot hold the weight of the problems created by the rest of it. Luckily, they’re not scheduled to play longer than 20 minutes and so, with the same amount of hype and eagerness with which people poured into the venue, they are all keen to get out, nobody feeling too disappointed.
Artists in this article: Abe Vigoda
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