The Notwist @ King Tut's, 19 Nov
German veterans pull out all the stops
The Notwist don't take to the road very often, so a little rustiness could have been excused tonight. Upon leaving King Tut's though, the very suggestion seems preposterous. True to their Bavarian roots, they are meticulous and scientific, or as one delighted reveller helpfully declares: “Vorsprung durch Technik!”
The bulk of the set is taken from this year's outstanding The Devil, You + Me album and 2004's Neon Golden and the band's performance is as stellar as it needs to be to do the tracks justice. The beauty is tempered with an industrial edge, provided tonight by producer Console, armed with Wii controllers and various other unidentified 'instruments', in turn supplying the strikingly loud audio (perhaps harking back to their early days as metal noizeniks) with a stunning visual backdrop.
The encore of Good Lies, with Markus Acher's eerily detached vocals spawning countless goosebumps, is a candidate for the set's highlight, usurped only by a positively transcendental take on Gloomy Planets and a ten minute plus version of Different Cars and Trains from the 2003 EP of the same name. The Notwist can seemingly do no wrong: tonight they are as flawless as you would ever hope and at this stage, quite probably expect. [Finbarr Bermingham]
The Devil, You + Me is out now via City Slang
http://www.myspace.com/thenotwistnow