Stage Buzz: The Veils
The last time IE spoke to The Veils’ Finn Andrews, we accused him of conducting the interview from inside a closet. The singer – son of XTC’s Barry Andrews – talked in a hushed manner as if someone were about to throw the door open at any second, and it mirrored some of the more intimately tense moments of the album he was promoting.
On the new, self-released Time Stays, We Go, however, the doors, sash, and roof have been removed and a lightning current powers a light show. Though Veils have shown a propensity to electrify this way in the past, they’ve always been tempered by a highly self-aware Andrews kicking the bottom out. Following album opener “Through The Deep, Dark Wood,” the ebbs are less precipitous and the pensiveness is less thorough than on recent efforts.
A cocktail like this has the potential to streamline a band’s sound and de-fang it – which, in truth, partially occurs through the echo on the guitars. But, as evidenced in the Cash-esque chugging of “Train With No Name,” Andrews and co. have found a reliable companion in Americana, and sound like they visited border towns in a broke-ass pickup truck and not a tour bus. Despite the richness of his Richard Ashcroftian pipes, Andrews frequently shreds and cracks his voice to come off like Jack White: White light, White heat. (Thursday@Subterranean with Lantern and Island Of Misfit Toys.)
— Steve Forstneger
Category: Featured, Stage Buzz, Weekly
