After falling in love with Árstíðir’s latest album Nivalis, I’ve been very eager to see them live to see how the music translates into a live environment – so when their tour in support of the aforementioned album took them to Rebellion in Manchester, I knew I had to be there.
Put simply, it was a stunning performance from start to finish. Featuring two sets with a little break between them, it really helped the flow of the night, and the renditions of the songs were studio quality – they sounded so together and succinct that it gave me goosebumps. There was something special about this show and the way the members were so in tune with each other couldn’t be faulted.
Beginning the night with the first three tracks from Nivalis, it set the mood well and the flow from one song to the next was fantastic. Quite often when you see a band live, they mix things up and play tracks out of the order of the album, so this approach was a bit of a surprise but it also worked. Please Help Me was particularly good; you could really feel the emotion and body of the performance of the song from all the musicians onstage.
The set didn’t just feature new songs though; Árstíðir played songs spanning across their entire career and the second set began with the three original members of the band coming onstage to perform Kill Us and Sunday Morning from their debut album, which was a nice little treat – whilst there’s no denying that the violin/viola and cello give the music an extra sparkle, it was nice to see them return to their roots and show the room where it all began.
The second set featured my personal highlight of the night, Entangled. Before the show, I wouldn’t say it was one of my favourite tracks on Nivalis and it didn’t really stand out to me, but the performance of it changed everything. The passion in the delivery was clear to hear and it was such a moving and colourful rendition that it almost brought a tear to my eye.
The night ended with a second encore, with the five members of the band standing in a circle on the venue floor as they sang a traditional Faroese dance song a capella, and even though they didn’t have microphones, their voices filled the room and it really helped to end the set on a very memorable note.
Árstíðir absolutely delivered. If they’re playing a show near you, then be sure to head on over and check them out!
