“I enjoy playing live... well, only if it goes well,” Keith Freund, of husband/wife duo Trouble Books, told me before the final show of their brief UK tour. If I was to infer from this that Trouble Books’ live shows are something of a hit or miss affair, I can only conclude that the band were on unusually good form that evening. Still riding high off the success of their latest release, the sublime self-titled collaboration with Emeralds guitarist Mark McGuire, the duo seemed full of confidence during their brief set and, perhaps ironically, the only song performed that evening that could have been labelled a “miss” was in fact the one song that was taken from that record.
A sparkling highlight of Trouble Books & Mark McGuire, 'Song For Reinier Lucassen’s Sphinx', fell slightly flat as the duo attempted to fill the empty space left in McGuire’s absence. Keith Freund is not the technically proficient axeman McGuire is, and his layers of harshly strummed guitars served only to highlight the loss of his collaborator’s more subtle, weightless playing. Taken from Gathered Tones, their album of 2010, 'Ascending Kidney' was the outstanding cut of the evening as Linda’s fragile vocals were gradually enveloped by cascading swells of guitar melody. Indeed, the band seemed much more comfortable playing the songs that had originally been conceived to be performed as a duo, building slowly drifting loops of guitars and synths topped off with their pretty, boy-girl duets.
Of the support acts, Outshine Family brought a more poignant atmosphere to Cafe Oto as they told the audience: “we’d love to have some records to sell, or even give away, but they’ve all been destroyed in that fucking fire.” This was a stark reminder of the personal loss experienced by countless struggling independent bands as a result of the PIAS warehouse fire and, as the venue fell silent for a moment, the futility of the rioters’ fight against “the rich” became all the more striking. This was probably the most notable part of Outshine Family’s set, however, which otherwise consisted of fairly drab keyboard drones accompanying even drabber vocal chants, and with song titles including the likes of 'Stars Wept' and 'Holy Night', some woeful lyrics. Petrels’ performance was infinitely more engaging as the one man band looped his live ‘cello playing and prepared samples into long, dense drones which he brought expertly to a deafening climax by the end of his set.
It was Trouble Books, however, who ultimately stole the show. Keith’s bouncy on-stage persona embodied the light-hearted atmosphere permeating the small, candle-lit venue, and even betrayed a considerable degree of enjoyment, commenting half way into the set: “it’s nice to be able to do this outside of our attic.” It must’ve been going well.