M.A.R.S.H.E.A.U.X

[empiremonkey]

Well, where do I start....
As a big fan of Marsheaux and Mikro, this was a gig I couldn't afford to miss, but after a 200 mile trip to London, I left very disappointed.
Visually, the show was perfect, sonically it was a disaster.
Who ever was in charge of the front of house sound should be shot.
It was way too loud to such and extent it was distorting the speakers, add to that the “slap back” from the back wall, it has to be one of the worst sounding shows I’ve been to. (and as a former entertainments manager of a students union in Manchester and occasional tour manager, I’ve seen a lot)
All we could hear was the kick drum and bass, a bit of middle and certainly no top end. I wandered around the room and it was bad everywhere.
You could hardly hear any lead keyboards.
The vocals were none existent, and to be honest, when we could hear then, there were one or two bad notes in there to say the least. This could be down to the monitor mix, or the “pre recorded” or software driven backing vocals. When one of the girls sang on there own it was ok, but when they sang together something was very wrong.
Marsheax are not a hard core dance act, the mix should have been quieter and clearer. Yazoo meets Enya.
I am also surprise the tour manager/promoter did not go to the front of house desk and point this out.
It was hard to endure….and only hearing the start of Promise, stopped me from leaving for the encore.
I would say it looked over complicated, with the girls being given some “gadgets” to play with which made them look very uncomfortable. Especially the drum pads and Korg Kaossilator,.
And why have old Jen and Korg MS20 synths upfront, instead of some decent midi controller keyboards !
Looks like “Mr Mikro” may have had an influence there.
If La Roux can get a deal in the UK, Marsheaux certainly should. The new album is stunning, but it’s with a heavy heart, I have to say that my first (and hopefully not my last) Marsheaux live experience was not a good one.
Keep the faith

[orac]

Sorry to hear that

I watched Marsheaux and Mikro in exactly the same place in Scala where I saw La Roux which was on the upper floor just a few feet away from the soundesk in a group of several people and none of us had any complaints about the sound.
I rarely watch gigs from the front these days as the bass does tend to drown out everything else.
I actually thought that it was the best sound we've had at an EY event since the very first one in Hoxton (EY3 really did have bad sound problems).

It is a difficult thing to get right on the night. It was very loud in Scala but so was La Roux. What we have found in the past with previous sound engineers at EY events is that they mostly deal with guitar acts and the synth thing is a bit alien to them
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[PaulB]

I had a very enjoyable night and it was great to see Marsheaux playing live once again, especially on the strengths of such a superb album as Luminex Noir. Radial Emotion was a particular highlight

Mikro showed an incredible amount of energy on stage and were an instant hit (apparently every copy of their CD sold out on the night). The closer Friends has to be one of the highlights with the shoutouts to the likes of OMD, Human League, Numan and co.

The sound at the front was fine although I suspect the odd layout of the venue had a hand in any sound issues in the rest of the venue.

empiremonkey: I'd have to disagree with your observation that the girls appeared uncomfortable with the instruments. Check out the performance of Dream Of A Disco where Marianthi is clearly having a lot of fun whacking the drum pads

I hope that we don't have to wait long to see Marsheaux back performing live here in the UK . Well done to EY for the event and also the bands and people that helped make it such an enjoyable evening.

Some pics from the show:


Marsheaux have gained 2 extra members (who look strangely familiar...).


Mikro in action




Marsheaux doing their thing.




The Mikro/Marsheaux/Katsen supergroup starts here!
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"Girls look wicked playing synths" La Roux

[orac]

EY has since received some absolutely terrific feedback about EY6 from people who attended

Most of these comments will go live on the site later tonight together with choice pics from Richard Price, Chi and Paul (I *love* the super group pic ).
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[RobertR]

Some great comments there, seems the location within the gig made all the difference to peoples enjoyment.
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"I wanna breakthrough all the Milky Way"

[RobertR]

One of my favourites from the Mikro set...

http://soundcloud.com/nikonn/mikro-multiverse
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"I wanna breakthrough all the Milky Way"

[Latex]

Ok, a little delayed but I am back in from planet DM and can confirm the set list from EY6 Marsheaux was:

Intro (Sorrow)
So Far
Exit
Love Under Pressure
It's Fine Now
Hanging On
Stand By
Computer Love
Summer
Dream of a Disco
Playboy
Radial Emotion
Ghost
Empire State Human
Breakthrough

Encore :

Promise
Pure
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"Electro Music is the Soul of Language"

[Latex]

While trying to be as impartial as possible given that I loved the gig I would coment as follows:

Having read most of the reviews regarding the show I can agree with a little of everyone's view here. The sound in the venue was not perfect but I was at the front stage and I do remember a couple of small vocal faults but after all this was a live performance and would never be as polished as the pre recorded tracks. Visually m+s were what could only be described as stunning!, while George and Nik looked very sharp with the shirt & tie sets.

I thought the set was fantastic and a great mix of new material with some classic Marsheaux sounds in there. I could listen to Computer Love over and over again live and It was fantastic to hear Radial Emotion played also. Other big highlights for me were Hanging On which sounded amazing and the new version of Playboy was a nice addition.

If I was to have any issue of my own, it would be that there could have been many more numbers at the gig. The venue could probably have taken double the number of people who attended, however this was a Thursday evening in London.

oh, and I have another gripe while I am at it. Surely the capital of London around the Kings Cross area could have a restaurant open past midnight other than Burger King!
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"Electro Music is the Soul of Language"

[RobertR]

Just heard from GavinEJones who very kindly is sharing his Marsheaux videos for us to download:-

[wout]

my pics are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/woutster/sets/72157622752593579/

If you would like to use them, please send me a pm. I've had pictures "stolen" before and I was not best pleased.

[RobertR]

Hi Wout, some great pics there, thanks for sharing.
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"I wanna breakthrough all the Milky Way"

[Latex]