Thursday 09/02/06 Mew, Envy and Other Sins, The Perishers @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Let’s get one thing clear.  If you haven’t already heard of Mew, they’re Danish; home of pastries, bacon and Aqua.  You may also have heard associations with the infamous ‘prog’.  Stop. Before you write them off as Northern European 24 minute tin-whistle and spoon solo peddlers, step back, admire the mini Danish flags around the room and hastily forget about them. Don’t pretend you’ve heard it all before.  You haven’t.

Kicking of the Scandinavian celebration, The Perishers meatball-and-Ikea hotchpotch of Nick Valensi-likes, frantic emo-drummers and broken English potty-mouthedness sounds a much more exciting prospect on paper than in reality.  Whispery and methodical balladry suggest rather anxious attempts at emulating Ryan Adams, even Eels, but their systematic homogeny  ventures more into ‘nice’ territory than anywhere ground breaking.  OC soundtrack favourite ‘Sway’ pricks up the ears of even this diminished and stagnant crowd with its sweet swirling melodies, but certainly no Ikea style riots are happening over these insipidly sleepy Swedish sounds, particularly when vocals include the, erm, touching sentiments of “I want to bind you with my arms”.  Their most accurate reflection possibly lies in the woolly folds of the guitarist’s cardigan: fairly endearing, but cumbersome, deliberate and dreary.

If Muse, Kaiser Chiefs, We Are Scientists and a couple of Dexys Midnight Runners had indulged in a Victorian orgy in a ship-builders yard, Envy and Other Sins could well have been the product of the lust and gluttony.  Delivering a shoe shined guv’nor kick in the face to The Perishers static blandness, they jerk and flurry their way around the antiquity adorned stage in a rabid fit of choppy Brummie cheekiness.  Somewhat escaping their apparent eccentricities, EAOS deliver a debonair line of chaotic yet arch, catchy tunes and sumptuously quaking but solid harmonies.  ‘Prodigal Son’ initiates the seedy proceedings with a brisk, insistent swagger and captivating vibrancy, leading us to the array of outlandish 80s synth, skeletal keyboards and dark lyrics that characterise the romantic zest of these Dickensian gents.

Headliners Mew capture your most terrifying nightmares and dazzlingly beautiful reveries and create an intricate sensory mirage to incarcerate even the most jaded of ears and spirits.  They gloriously force their way into your souls: the wide-eyed audience are lost in their haunting, extravagant poetry of choral melody and engulfed by the eerie visuals that cement this spectacular epic.

This surreal dream commences with the enlighteningly blissful ‘Special’ and ‘Chinaberry Tree’, drawing you into the honeyed, ethereal vocal sound trap and anxiety tinged dark atmospheres to come.  New single ‘Why are you Looking Grave?’ exquisitely showcases their craft for soaring angelic vocals above an intricately layered melodic backdrop with a divine grace, brought to life live with heartfelt abandon.

When a lone piano and a solo Jonas Bjerres dominate the stage, the otherworldly fragility and intoxicating bliss they culminate in on ‘Saliva’ prove that Mew's talents extend way beyond the proggish complexities of other songs in its stunning, poignant simplicity.  It’s no surprise that by closer ‘Comforting Sound’, with its fervent patchwork of emotion, sensory illumination and chilling sounds that grown men have been reduced to tears. The atmosphere drenched dramatics of a dream you’ll never want to wake up from.