Half*Alive – Tuning Fork, 29 October 2023: Review

Half*Alive are a kaleidoscopic mix of avant-garde Indie Pop or Rock, and great choreographed dance. Breaking through the barriers of Pop Art.

Andy Warhol would have loved them. He would recognise the links to his own Exploding Plastic Inevitable freak show to which he conscripted the Velvet Underground into.

They are a trio from Long Island, California. Josh Taylor, lead singer who was in a band called the Moderates before starting this project. A duo first with Brett Kramer drums and then joined by bassist J. Tyler Johnson.

From the outset the band has talked about the high ambitions of the group. They make references to the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

They are not Art Terrorists, but they have called their most recent album Conditions of a Punk. It features heavily in the show tonight.

Interestingly, their name has connections to true music attack rebels Suicide. Half Alive is a great cult album originally released on cassette tape-only in 1978. Lester Bangs the great music critic called it the true sound of New York City inside the Punk explosion.

Taylor doesn’t scream and terrify like Alan Vega. He is a conventional singer with a great melodic voice. There is a circuitous link, though. A pretty package can still provide unsettling and disturbing material.

That original album is available on Spotify.

The show begins with the band behind a white cloth barrier, the players projecting as shadows. There is two, then there are many. It is all visual effects. They mimic the multiple arms of Krishna. It cold be hippie or it could be Husker Du.

Tip Toes and The Fall. Arty alternative Rock and Pop oscillating. My pride is screaming.

Curtain drops to reveal three players. The drummer is out front to stage left.

Summerland. Bass player comes on like Paul McCartney and his innovative string-bending style. They sing like fey Folkies.

High Up is minimalist choral and ascends the peaks in the fashion of alt-J. Who they resemble the most of any current bands. Looking at the mountains/ Higher than the raincloud.

Back Around is a mix of elements. High tenor to falsetto singing, dramatic drum surges. It is very odd Power Pop, and the floor is bouncing as everyone starts jumping.

The band say they borrow from everything. Sixties, Seventies, film, theatre, Soul, R’n’B, probably AI and ChatGPT by now. They are lying on a therapist couch whilst the deep nature of the Id is laid open and more sunshine is revealed than darkness.

Very slick stage moves, as the setting is rearranged, and two young men appear. They dance and mime in a highly stylised fashion. It is great performance art with a high level of dexterity and athleticism.

They continue the show in this fashion, with the singer combining with them intermittently. Often breathtaking.

Move Me has many facets moving in harmony around a central core. Dramatic church music with ringing synthesiser tones. Drums march and the crowd appear to be completely dialled in by seduction. Even when they sing You know I want to live too fast and die too young.

This is not a call to suicide (but it might be to Suicide). That band always maintained they were about life. Dying can also mean rebirth and reinvention. You must be stupid to take that infamous phrase literally. It is existential. To live in the glorious present.

Coming from California, a better reference point would be the books of Bret Easton Ellis. The moral and spiritual bankruptcy of times and beautiful people in the wake of the second world war. Less Than Zero and American Psycho in particular. Looking to plot a way out whilst being honest to the naked truth.

There is nothing morbid or claustrophobic about this music, as the Velvets or Suicide could be.

Clues in the song titles. Subliminal is Eighties Disco with three people dancing. But it is also quirky and jumps like XTC.

Country and cowboy music is stitched into What’s Wrong. Come a ti-yi-yippee-yi-yay.

Hot Tea is both theatre and song. Some Beat prose, a story told through synths and backing tracks. Beautiful falsetto and I’m sure they sing are you my remedy?

This band seem to have expanded on the sound of the Beach Boys from Pet Sounds onwards. When Brian Wilson reached for higher and higher muses and went completely mad. That album was also a major inspiration for the Beatles to come up with Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

I saw the news today, oh boy!  

Macey

Macey is the current moniker of Harry Parsons. Who is a Folkie, playing generally quiet and sensitive music to a subdued crowd who listen attentively.

The problem here is that the doors were late to open, as he was still doing his sound-check.  There was a very large line waiting to get in, by the time they opened.

Trouble was that Macey decided to start his support set straight away. Most people were still outside, and he started 15 minutes before schedule. Because the vibes were good!

I may have heard half of it. He was accompanied by Ben Malone on electric guitar while he played acoustic.

The songs are generally downbeat and introspective. A little sad and dark like typical Folk.

There is an ironic humour there amongst the angst. Save me from self-deprecation pops up in a lyric. Morrissey and Smiths Mancunian wit.

Another time then, when timing issues are sorted out. The Doors are always the first act scheduled for every show, but they never appear!

Half*Alive keep it up for two hours plus. The energy level is phenomenal as the dancers unleash and wind up.

One song echoes great early Surf music. Bass and drum solo briefly. They work it into Jazz Funk.

There is also Northen Soul, shuffle beats, bass-driven Disco riffs and a shout out to Out of Sight.

A phenomenal performance from Half*Alive and from what we experienced bigger times are coming.

Rev Orange Peel

Photography by Leonie Moreland

Half Alive

1 / 18

Macey

2 / 9