ESOTERICA

VENUE THE BLACK HEART, LONDON

DATE 20/09/2019

Fun fact: esoterica were interviewed for the first ever issue of Prog magazine, way back in march 2009. it was early days for the band then and they were yet to release an album, but we had already been ensnared by their knotty, industrial, Tool-tinged sound. During that conversation, frontman Tobias Keast lamented, “if we were from america we’d be a much bigger band,” and looking back now, maybe he had a point. Despite scoring themselves high-profile support slots with him and marilyn manson and winning plaudits from robert Plant, it never translated into massive international success. The last time the band’s original line-up played a headline show in london was a 10-year anniversary show in 2015, although were still technically on a hiatus that started in 2013. and while Keast continued to play their music at shows under the name esO, other than that, the camp has been silent.

So no one is more surprised than the band themselves to be facing a completely sold-out room tonight. as the first electronic stabs of opener Birds in a hurricane from 2012’s Nothing left To lose buzz and whirr, bassist laura conway and guitarist cloud cerberus share a look of disbelief and a typically barefoot Keast mounts the speakers to survey the scene. “it’s been a while,” he bellows with disbelief.

There’s an enormous amount of goodwill in the room and the crowd shout and punch the air joyously to Don’t rely On anyone, but there’s no doubt that songs like Watch The Drive, where Keast most channels the unhurried rhythm of maynard Keenan, have a crunchy 90s tang that hasn’t aged as well. On the other hand, a cover of New Order’s True Faith, a sublime rendition of Fill me With love, and Silence, a cover of the 90s trance tune that ended up being their biggest hit, fare much better. The setlist takes in three album’s worth of material but it’s also the band’s official launch party for new single Gone, a punchy number that’s infectious but doesn’t have the same heft as their more progressive material. as an emotional miranda and The Tempest brings things to a close, it’s hard to tell whether this is simply a nostalgia trip or the start of a brand new era for the band, but right now they’re quite rightly basking in the moment.