Valentine’s Day? More like Devil’s Night! Motionless In White’s Ally Pally extravaganza is a widescreen, gleeful celebration of their 20 years as a band.
“Do you mind if I just stare at you for a second?” Chris Motionless asks as the lights beam down on the crowd. “It is Valentine’s after all, and I just want to adore you.”
Turns out this spectral-looking figure with a pale face and make-up and clothes dark enough to make him look greyscale knows some way to get thousands of people twirling their hair and giggling all at once. This is, of course, a mutual love affair. Motionless In White loved enough to return to our rainy shores almost exactly a year after their last tour, with no new music out bar the recent single Afraid Of The Dark. They’re overjoyed – and so is everyone here.
Perhaps the unsung heroes of this Saturday night, however, are openers Make Them Suffer. The Aussie metallers offer a bruising half-hour set, from the chokeslam of Oscillator to the seething Doomswitch, but there’s also an understated melodic sweetness added by vocalist and keyboardist Alex Reade, and it adds up to create a set that fills this space beautifully.
Dayseeker can, and should, do the same. The gigantic melodies and gossamer textures of last year's brilliant Creature In The Black Night album were surely made for Ally Pally, but there’s something almost too manicured about them tonight. For all their great moments, from Bloodlust’s revving fury to the twinkling, sing-along-inspiring Sleeptalk, there are other points (particularly Creature In The Black Night) where they seem too placid and the momentum stalls. This evening, something sadly gets lost in translation.
Motionless In White announce themselves in rather unique style, with a giant, blaring visual of a cat spinning through the galaxy (as you do). The Scranton goth-metallers might take things like sing-alongs and opening the pit seriously, but they’re just as serious about goofing off. They’ve probably racked up a gigantic electricity bill with the lights surrounding them, tearing through the uproarious Meltdown and pulsing cyber-metal of Sign Of Life flanked by the Cherry Bombs twirling batons. There’s even something to be said for how scarily well old cut A-M-E-R-I-C-A has aged (‘Oil prices are so high we can’t feed ourselves’). As the excitement of a gigantic airing of Voices dies down, Chris happily admits he could call it a night just after that and be happy, not that he has any wish to. Frankly, with the grin plastered on his face, it’s safe to say nobody has ever been giddier about being on this stage.
The whole evening, commemorating 20 years of Motionless being a band, could be a love letter to the fans who are here tonight. There’s more than a sprinkling of deep cuts, from a curveball run-through of Hollow Points on its tour debut, to a rendition of older cut City Lights that feels like the cinematic moment today deserved.
Judging by how much the crowd love Disguise, they may want to consider keeping it in the setlist for some time to come. Slaughterhouse is as pummelling as can be – and ‘One mutilation… under god!’ is a mosh call for the ages – but it’s wrapped up on an emotional note, with the glimmering duo of Another Life and Eternally Yours bringing things to a graceful end apparently so the lovers in the room “can get the job done before midnight”. “Some of you may have done it already,” Chris jokes.
Well, well. Regardless of whether you’re getting any or not once the show is done, MIW have made Ally Pally the place to be this weekend. As fun as they are live, there is something to be said for how the Scranton spooks have evolved beyond being just great musicians into bona fide entertainers. Same time next year, then, boys?
