The Polyphonic Spree live is out-there pop music

There are so many of The Polyphonic Spree members onstage in the white robes your eyes spend time looking around to discern people underneath. But, the opportunity is denied as we need the whole visual communication to satisfy our curious brains; this band has not only de-personalized the pop standard, it de-imagined it as well as de-sexualised it, totally playing with our visual acuity and, thus, impressions. So, it’s down to music to count and we get a performance that is far more energetic, unpredictable and inimitable than you’d expect on the recorded evidence.

Although the band’s look is like a cross between a hippy tribe and a religious cult, these 24 people – re-enforced by two Pulp members, Jarvis Cocker and bassist Steve Mackey, amidst choristers for ‘Hanging Around’ (Jarv directed the video) and ‘Soldier Girl’, who also DJ’d the event – can do anything on stage and mostly do it. And, in how many bands do you get a head-banging harpist? Kid you not! Or, an air-guitaring lady-flutist? Well, almost…

It is not only the beautiful music of dreamy and harmonious pop dimensions that can be found on their debut album but also much, much more. Tim DeLaughter’s collective is so multi-talented, some members are playing instruments most of the audience can’t even name, but they all are getting off as if some illicits were dropped beforehand! The Sprees turn from perfect pop performers into a combo that is reincarnation of the Sgt Pepper’s Hearts Club Band! All sound clashing, discordant, cacophonous, disturbing but it is instantly counter-balanced by the passage that only Ennio Morricone could have written!

The title of the band’s debut album, ‘The Beginning Stages Of…’ wasn’t there only for a design effect and when DeLaughter – looking surprisingly like Jon Anderson of Yes – announces a new song and starts it without revealing its title, although ‘Strong’ appears to be a good candidate, it is not just a track, it is a mini-symphony, full of winding melody, peaks and pianissimo parts, dramatic choir and wondrous sonarium… Moving involuntarily ‘infested’ bodies are invited to reach for the sun… It’s like the post-modern ‘Age of Aquarius’ and I’m not being facetious here.

24 carat of a show – Ave Texans!