Campaign for Real Time

Live Review: REVEREND GLASSEYE, HUMANWINE (EP RELEASE), CAMPAIGN FOR REAL TIME (Middle East Downstairs, 06/03/06)
 

It’s HUMANWINE’s EP release on Cordless Records, a division of Warner Music Group, and the Reverend Adam Glasseye has booked these kids one corker of a party. Apparently, in the gospel according to Glasseye, all you need is a soggy Saturday night and three headline-worthy acts whose eager fans are hooked on the concept of spectacle. This crowd is almost more of a show than the show, because all three bands are blessed with devoted fanbases with street team mentality. They hawk merch and they bring props and wear costumes - okay fine, I too am all gothed up and holding flowers for the Reverend; I love this night. 

Campaign for Real Time is already going strong when I arrive, guitars surging, synths wailing and hip-hop groove flat-out crushing. The stage can barely hold the wild antics of Rory Stark, Lee Bronson and that android. GodDAMN these crazy time travelers. I’ve heard naysayers naysaying C4RT, that there’s no “song” here, that it’s all just a loud glom of Moogish schmaltz. Then how come several hundred people are singing along to “In Your Dreams”? The songs are strong, the band is tight, the showmanship is outstanding and this band sets the bar high. 

HUMANWINE start right into a magical set. Glasseye sits in on some mandolin, and new songs emerge. Particularly well-done is “Rivolta Silenziosa,” the new EP’s title track. It’s a snappy, waltzy romp that would be, in a musical, the closing number of the first act. Holly’s gorgeous soprano is well-accompanied by Mat’s Danny Elfman-like tones, and there’s a titillating bridge positively owned by the percussion and the repeating phrase “belly full of fingernails and another’s femur on my head.” A good number of HUMANWINE’s entourage have dressed, as Holly would say “to ogre” for the set topper, “Fattest Thin.” How do you ogre? You hunch, stamp your feet and go “AAAOOO” on the downbeat, and we all ogre’d our little hearts out. 

Glasseye, OH my GOD. Where’s the horns, where’s the sprawling orchestra? This is a pared down four-piece. It’s stark, lyrical and passionate. The Reverend sits center stage, illuminated by floor lights, strumming and singing and I’m reminded of the only time I saw Nick Cave in concert. This man is a poet, an artist and a modern day shaman who is artistically fearless; at the risk of leaving his fanbase behind, he’s boldly following the muse into this more personal, dark folk milieu, and I love every gutwrenching note. “Yes, yes, throw me flowers, my sweets,” he intones near the end, and the shower of blossoms is almost hypnotic. (Lexi Kahn)
(From The Noise, Issue 263, July 2006)

Uploaded to Youtube by ptvn on Nov 16, 2006

video for C4RT's "In Your Dreams" from the album "Yes I Mean No"

Video by Fern Silva