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Tuesday night was a damp evening, which made it ideal for the return of The Horrors to New York City. They played a free show at the House Of Vans in Brooklyn. It was the band’s first North American performance in two years, and the first North American gig during the era of new album Luminous. The show was of course in support of the new album which comes out next Tuesday via XL Recordings (they even had copies for sale early).

Young Brooklyn band Spires opened the show and it was the third time I’ve seen them as an opener for someone else. They’re a young group that sound like quite a few bands out there (The Strokes, Tame Impala, The Horrors, amongst other), but don’t really strike me as doing anything exciting or unique. Their life set was fine and all but felt kinda flat and forgettable overall. Although their track “Ghost Arcade” is a fairly catchy number.

The Horrors came out and played mostly drenched in darkness, aside from the random moments that the bands lanky frontman Faris Badwan would poke his head through the light. I expected the night to be almost all (if not all) new material from Luminous but it was a fairly even split even for a brief 10-song set. They opened with Primary Colours’ opening track “Mirror’s Image” then jumped to Skying’s track “I Can See Through You.”

“In And Out Of Sight”, “I See You”, “So Now You Know” were surprisingly the only new songs they played from the album. Which was fine with me as we still got to hear some of their best work with “Sea Within A Sea” “Still Life” and “Moving Further Away.” The band have really come into their own live, using darkness and colorful light equally, balancing the two sides of the bands that we’ve seen over the years. They’re as tight as can be these days, as well developed as a band as you can hope.

For a free show they absolutely brought it, and then some. It was a teaser for their next full visit to New York for sure, but one that will certainly hold me over until the next time.

Find some more photos and the setlist below.

1. Mirror’s Image
2. I Can See Through You
3. Scarlet Fields
4. In and Out Of Sight
5. I See You
6. Endless Blue
7. So Now You Know
8. Sea Within A Sea
9. Still Life
10. Moving Further Away

The Horrors:

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Spires:

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