After a period of maintaining a relatively low profile while undergoing personnel changes in recent months, Her Name is Calla mark their return with a new single and a trio of live dates to herald its arrival. In a sense, tonight’s show is relatively low-key, and represents the new five-piece’s first time playing together since August. Yet in another sense, there’s a very real sense of occasion. The venue is a major factor, and seeing Her Name is Calla perform in a church is entirely fitting given that, on a good night, they have the capacity to conjure something akin to a religious experience.
Warming things up in the cool room on a bitter December night, York foursome Midas Fall reveal themselves to be something special. The mix of sequenced and live drumming creates a textured, layered percussive underlay for the contrasting guitar sounds that interweave to dazzling effect. At times reminiscent of Cranes – in particular Liz Heaton’s dramatic vocals – it’s Rowan Burn’s guitar that not only dominates, but defines the sound as she sculpts sonic shapes from six strings soaked in effects, with breathtaking results.
It’s a different kind of drama that Magpie’s songs bring, being more about musical chorus lines than crescendos. It’s theatrical and at times dizzying, and I find myself drawing stylistic comparisons to a less wildly flamboyant Birdeatsbaby. The complex yet robust drumming benefits immensely from the venue’s natural reverb, which is nothing short of immense, and on standout track ‘Seventeen’, it all comes together perfectly with some chunky bass and neat harmonies.
The question of how Her Name is Calla’s latest lineup would measure up was soon answered, with Adam Weikert’s gently rolling drums herald the opening of Her Name is Calla’s set with the tried and tested, long-standing starter, ‘Nylon’. Beginning softly and building to an anguished intensity, it’s a powerful statement that demonstrates Calla have lost none of their passion or magic.
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What’s more, they manage to sustain it for the duration of a full-length set that drew from across the span of their career to date. A beautifully spiritual-sounding ‘Pour More Oil’ showed Sophie Green’s voice to be every bit as good as her intuitive violin playing. It’s the strings that really come to the fore here, and with the rich cello sounds of new addition Nicole Robson - who’s impressive CV includes playing live with Bat for Lashes - they take the brooding orchestral sound a step further on new single ‘Ragman Roll’. It’s played back to back with its B-side, ‘It Was Flood’, which builds to a disquieting discord of strings over a looping piano motif.
The set’s centrepiece is the eternally epic ‘Condor and River’, which is as searingly intense and magnificently haunting as it ever was, with Tom wringing every last drop of emotion during the course of the song’s fifteen-minute expanse.
The band’s second new member, bassist John Helps, will be better known to many as guitarist with Maybeshewill, and while may have maintained an understated presence on the stage, he really came into his own on the final brace of tracks, with some sonorous bottom-end filling out the sound. They conclude the set with a monumentally climactic and cathartic rendition of ‘New England’. As the final explosive snare cracks fade into the highest reaches of the venue’s vaulted ceiling, there can be no doubting Her Name is Calla. The next stage of their journey is going to be every bit as exciting as the ones before.
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