Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Old Vic Tunnels, London 10/3/11
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
The first of a three-night Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes’ residency at the Old Vic Tunnels – a disused Victorian railway network a stone’s throw from Waterloo station, recently reopened as a performance space – promises to be something special.
Advance publicity for this evening makes reference to the venue’s transformation into the ‘Wild West on Mars’ for the arrival of the entrancing Californian collective, and whilst this might be overstating the extend of the décor, there is at least a gymnastic demonstration and a mock funeral procession serving as pre-show entertainment: hardly traditional indie gig fare.
Bearded band leader Alex Ebert is a fiery zealot with a style that seems to owe more to the late 19th century US southern populist movement’s ‘colourful spellbinders’ than a conventional pop singer, directing the Magnetic Zeroes’ exuberant, mariachi-tinged country rock through the symphonic ’40 Day Dream’ and ‘Desert Song’ beneath three giant glitter balls.
With just the one album, 2009's Up From Below, below their belts it's an inevitably short, but amply charismatic, set.
Artists in this article: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
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