The Atlas Sound show turned out to be one of the most surprising and enjoyable events of the year. Opening up the night was Bradford Cox’s friend (and contributor to Atlas Sound’s new album) Laetitia Sadier of Setereolab. With nothing but a guitar, she strummed her way through a set of songs which featured several brand new ones, receiving their first public airing. What may have been a dull set if performed by someone else turned out to be very pleasant and dreamy, thanks in no small part to Sadier’s gorgeous voice. It set a pleasant tone for the evening and afterwards the crowd seemed settled and patiently awaited the arrival of Sian Alice Group.

Laetitia Sadier supported and joined Atlas Sound on stage

The London-based band were a different proposition entirely. With six members onstage all playing constantly, their post-rock songs rumbled along, slowly building and building until they reached an ear splitting yet hypnotic climax, until they eventually collapsed to allow the collective ear drums to take a breather, before they launched into their next one. In truth a half-hour support slot did not really give them the time or platform to fully express themselves, but they still put on a very good show that was greatly appreciated by the audience and definitely won them some new fans.

Eventually it was time for the headline performance. Arriving onstage with nothing but an acoustic guitar we wondered how Bradford Cox would manage to recreate the textured electronic pieces he has produced in the studio as Atlas Sound, but this was a sheer underestimation of the man. Laetitia Sadier retook the stage to join him for the opening song ‘Quick Canal’, a song from Logos on which she features. Cox took his time building up the song playing three different guitar lines each with a different effect on, looping and mashing them together into one vibrant sound that provided a wonderfully DIY approximation of the tune of the song, all while Sadier sang over the top. Once satisfied with the sound being made by his equipment Cox put down his guitar and took up the drums to play out the rest of the song. Halfway through a random young child came onstage and did some interpretive dancing, which provided the first of many laughs of the night.

Atlas Sound is comfortable with his acoustic guitar

Following directly on from this Bradford presented quite a different side to his talents by playing simple acoustic versions of ‘Criminals’ and ‘Kid Klimax’ with a little additional mouth organ, which were surprising and stunning in a completely different way. Seeing him play the songs in this stripped down form reminded me of two things that aren’t so clear from his multi-layered studio output: firstly that he has a very nice voice and secondly that he is an accomplished lyricist.

Throughout the night Bradford switched between the two styles or sometimes even incorporated both into one song, starting with a simple acoustic tune and then building up looped layers for the climax. Between songs he talked openly with the crowd, telling us anecdotes and making us laugh. He even took requests at which someone shouted “play some Pavement”, which he duly accepted with an enjoyable but ultimately failed attempt at ‘We Dance’.

He finished the set with a song he made up on the spot featuring lyrics about a real life incident from his childhood which involved getting high, looking for porn, but instead finding a gun. He left the stage but was quickly back claiming that it wasn’t an encore he’d just realised that he’d forgotten to play one of the songs and decided to return to the stage in order to do so, such was his earnestness. The crowd were more than happy to turn back around and watch him deliver the closing, title track from Logos.

The night turned out to be great fun for everyone involved thanks to the fantastic attitudes of the artists, the attention and appreciation shown by the crowd and of course the fantastic music.

Words by Rob Hakimian