Light Asylum
Corsica Studios, London
11/03/2011

London’s legendary Club Motherfucker turns eight tonight, and to celebrate they’ve brought Brooklyn’s Light Asylum to the capital for their only European show. Quite a coup as it turns out. The dark, dingy tunnels and corridors of Corsica Studios are packed to bursting with a twitchy crowd that only settles down, after a half hour wait, with the appearance of the act’s Shannon Funchess limbering up to perform. You may have heard her dulcet tones on tracks by Telepathe, Teengirl Fantasy, TV On The Radio or from her time as a touring member with !!!, but it’s with Light Asylum that she is surely set to make the biggest splash.

The singer stands stage left for a good few minutes stretching, bending and downing shots as if preparing to meet her match in a punch to the death cage fight. Meanwhile Bruno Coviello quietly joins her and starts to conjur up eerie synth music, and when Funchess finally turns to face us and strides towards the microphone, eyes flashing, to deliver her deep, intense, verging-on-the-operatic vocals it sends ripples around the room. The sound is simultaneously sad and incredibly danceable and reactions around The Fly vary from shut-eyed swaying and wild, arm-flailing abandon to stock still transfixed, open-mouthed gawping and actual tears.

‘A Certain Person’, ‘Knights And Week Ends’, ‘Skull Fuct’ and ‘Dark Allies’ – from the duo’s only release (the ‘In Tension’ tour EP) are greeted like old friends by the increasingly enraptured crowd and it’s Funchess’ spellbinding performance, combined with the drum machine-driven moody post-punk electronics emanating from the stage that make Light Asylum an un-missable live prospect. Tattooed and butch in all black baggy attire, chain-adorned leather cap and boots, the singer, lit by a solitary white light tonight, already looks like an icon in the making; as she beautifully commands her contralto throughout this hour-long set. But the huge impact it has on us is as much about the restraint she maintains – she is seemingly holding in a world of pain and rage – as it is about her perfectly-timed to the music winding and grinding, aggressive barks, hollers and the sudden stamp of her boots to the beat. Utterly unique, utterly mesmerising.

Camilla Pia