The Knife at Kentish Town Forum (14/10/06)

This isn't much like ordinary gigs. Aside from occasionally playing kettle drums with fluorescent orange sticks, it's difficult to work out what Olof Dreijer is actually doing for much of the time, and with his sister Karin, the only other onstage, only singing it's clearly not about reproducing their records live. Both are, of course, wearing balaclavas and orange facepaint, often then only part visible in the shadows.

I didn't see their show earlier this year at the Scala but its difficult to imagine how much of the show would have worked on a smaller stage - the size of the many, brilliant projections and, in fact, a certain distance from the audience being key factors in the experience tonight. After a couple of songs of elaborate images on the big screen behind them, all of a sudden a thick white line is drawn on the screen and simultaneously appears in the air in front of the stage. It's only after a few more lines are drawn that it becomes clear that they are in fact playing behind a second, translucent screen. It's a great trick but works beyond the intial "what is that?" factor; the impression that they are caged and that Karin is singing through a barrier matches up with the strained, distorted nature of many of the Silent Shout vocals. Aside from the likes of "Forest Families", though, it's the danciest ones which work best - their first album's "Kino", where artwork is abandoned for manically flashing lights, sounds fantastic. "Heartbeats" is actually slightly, strangely, underwhelming. It's played in a different, barer form that loses most of its bounce, though it would be difficult to really fuck up a song as great as that.

More extra tricks, like distorted faces either side of the main screen, are gradually revealed and the length of time they wait before using their surround sound makes it all the more startling when things start happening directly overhead too. It's hard not to admire such a well put together show, and it's only very occasionally that it feels cold or distant. A shame there's no "One Hit", though...