Lithium Magazine

Photos and review by Mike Bax

www.chapterhouse.info
www.myspace.com/chapterhouseinmyspace
www.myspace.com/ulrichschnauss
www.ulrich-schnauss.com

One of the most uplifting musical offerings I have seen in recent years was finally getting to see Chapterhouse perform ‘Pearl’ live in Toronto last night. The fact that they performed the song with Ulrich Schnauss on keyboards only made the moment that much more magical, as Ulrich is largely responsible for this reformation and micro-tour from Chapterhouse.

Ulrich Schnauss came on stage about 20 minutes later than expected, and levied a 45-minute set of material at a deafening volume to about 200 people. Two minutes into his performance, in which he was already very dimly lit by a single light at the corner of the Lee’s Palace stage, Schnauss requested the lights be turned right down, and the rest of his performance was delivered in the dark. Utilizing an ‘InFocus’ machine with looped footage of assorted cityscapes that appeared to be filmed from a moving vehicle, Schnauss played two songs I recognized, with the rest of his material being either new recordings or on-the-floor mixes of up-tempo beats that the crowd seemed suitably lulled by.

As stage hands started to set up Chapterhouse’s equipment, I was amused to see Schnauss’s ‘InFocus’ machine had been propped up by a stack of the limited edition DVDs Chapterhouse were selling at their merchandise table.

This is a small detail, but back in the day, shoegazer bands had a habit of lining up all of their guitars in front of their amps and the drum kit, and this evening at Lee’s Palace was like a time-warp back to 1991 as the band walked on stage to a swelling round of applause in front of their very familiar ‘wall of guitars’.

After their first song of the evening, ‘Ecstacy II’, Stephen Patman said it had been exactly 19 years since they had played Lee’s Palace. The band worked their way through their eclectic selection of material lifted from two commercial releases, and an assortment of EP’s and B-sides for just over 90 minutes. Patman encountered some peddle malfunctions and a microphone drop at the end of ‘Pearl’ that he saw as a bit of a disappointment, but his mic only dropped out at the very end of Pearl, and I was enjoying the show so much, these gaffs did little to sully a music moment that for the longest time I thought would never happen.

The majority of the set list from this evening’s show was culled from Whirlpool, Chapterhouse’s bravura 1991 album, along with two songs from Blood Music, a Beatles cover and some B-sides and single-only released songs. It was a blessing for fans from the nineties and for younger fans who have gotten into the band over the years since their break-up. Andrew Sherriff and Patman both sounded like the years have been kind to their voices, as material like ‘Autosleeper’, ‘Breather’ and ‘Falling Down’ were delivered like the band had never broken up in 1994.

What I enjoyed most about this evening’s show was the incredible opportunity to experience a band that, in my opinion, got cut short way to soon. Chapterhouse doesn’t seem to get name dropped as often as bands like Ride, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine, but if nothing else, this evening’s performance proved they certainly deserve to be.

Chapterhouse Toronto  Set List:
Ecstasy II
Treasure
Falling Down
Greater Power
Something More
April
Then We'll Rise
Precious One (with Ulrich Schnauss)
Rain (The Beatles cover)
Autosleeper
Breather
Come Heaven
In My Arms
Pearl (with Ulrich Schnauss)
Love Forever (with Ulrich Schnauss)

Encore:
If You Want Me
Inside Of Me  (with Ulrich Schnauss)