HOWARD, LIVE AT BACKSTAGE AT THE MILL
FRIDAY 6TH JANUARY KICKED OFF OUR 2023 IN STYLE WITH THE LAUNCH PARTY FOR THE NEW ALBUM BY THE BAND HOWARD, “EVENT HORIZON” HELD AT BACKSTAGE BY THE MILL, A COOL LITTLE VENUE IN THE BACK OF O’SULLIVAN’S BAR, RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO THE MOULIN ROUGE. WE WENT THERE TO CELEBRATE. CELEBRATE WOULD TURN OUT TO BE EXACTLY THE RIGHT WORD.
Howard are, it is fair to say, a band who wear their influences on their sleeves, but despite this they look and sound very much like a band of their time. Needless to say, we haven’t stopped listening to “Event Horizon” here at K-RPM since we first got our grubby hands on a copy and we were just slavering at the mouth over the prospect of hearing it performed live – especially considering we had never actually seen them play before. We’d held back from the YouTube method of experiencing them mainly because if there is one thing that was clear from their recordings it was that Howard were going to blow us away live. That did of course pile quite a bit of personal expectancy on the night ahead. But then why not? We’d had a rough week, and we were entitled to have something to look forward to. And seriously, is there a better tonic than being shut inside a venue while an awesome band are rocking out right in front of you and the rest of the world, and everything on it, is locked outside? I don’t think there is.
With a tight schedule there wasn’t going to be much time for anything apart from getting things started, and start they did, with Djiin hitting the stage early on … but we’re going to talk about Djiin in their own, deserved, article (because that’s how we do things here) so let’s skip straight to the main course.
After a rapid turnaround it was lights off and away we go for the stars of the night. A quick chat with drummer Tom Karren before the set started had confirmed that they were going to kick things off with what is without a doubt K-RPM’s current favourite track from the album, “I Hear A Sound”. It’s been blowing our socks off all week, taking us back to the first time we sat opened-mouthed, listening to a Jeff Buckley live recording – JB at his heaviest and most intense. And here it was, live, opening the set, just as good as we’d imagined.
We were loving this. They were loving this, and why wouldn’t they? They played exceptionally, from an observer’s point of view, and the crowd was in their hands before they even got started.
The setlist gave us six tracks of the new material mixed with a few tracks from the debut, “Obstacle”. The songs from both these albums sit seamlessly side by side, despite the “Event Horizon” tracks having a more polished feel to them. On occasion Howard stride into prog territory, but the songs are generally kept short and tight, the build-ups come at you quickly. The subtle moments are beautiful, the “let’s go” moments devine. For the encores we were treated to the classics, “Evil” and “Moan” from their debut EP, not a weak link to be found in the entire set. Howard’s music is definitely out there to be heard live.
The level of musicianship on stage tonight is in no doubt at all either. Singer, guitarist JM Canonville has the voice and hooks to match any classic rock singer and the inventiveness of whichever instrument he has to hand is key to the band’s sound, Tom Karrel on drums has the range and solidity to allow synthesiser/keyboard/theremin player, Raphaël Jeandenand – appearing to be a mixture of scientist, technology geek and full-on rocker – to paint whatever is needed over the top of it all. It is Raphaël who wins one of the biggest cheers of the night when he takes his hand to the theremin mounted in a conical lighting piece to his side. It is a crucial part of his orchestra, and a highlight of the show. Standing at the front, watching Raphaël at work, then looking over to see how locked in both JM and Tom were to all of this felt like a privilege, and it was around this time, as I looked closely, ignoring the music for a moment, that I realised how lucky these guys are to have each other : together they create what could at times be described as a wall of sound, not that murderous reverb-filled kind, but a sonic overload of sorts, the kind of needle-in-the-red kick that we come to rock shows for. It’s like magic.
“We are just three friends,” JM told the crowd later in the show, as if we hadn’t noticed. You didn’t need to be squashed down the front to see this. You could see it from the back of the room. More importantly, you could feel it.
Just like the camaraderie, the energy level never let up. The crowd got more worked up as the jams continued, dollar bills (from the “Bankable Sermon” video clip) were thrown out into the hands of the crowd, JM and Raphaël swapped out their instruments for bass guitars, Tom climbed out from behind his kit to serenade the crowd with a recorder … it was all happening.
Howard are an exceptionally talented French rock band who will have, should they want it, a broad international appeal. Don’t come crying to us in a few years complaining that you never saw them close up in a small, intimate venue, go and see them now before the stages they play on start to grow in size!
A tour is mentioned for later in the year, a tour that is marked on our calendar of highlights for the year ahead. Until then we’ll be counting the days.
