Gig review: Public Service Broadcasting at The Piece Hall
Opting for a career-spanning affair, the London art-rockers rattle around every corner of their catalogue with a terrific sense of cinematic realisation.
The droll voice of a fifties-style PSA proves a fitting aperitif for the arrival of Public Service Broadcasting upon the garlanded stage of The Piece Hall. The London art-rockers have long felt capable of temporal distortions, a group whose particular palate of retro-engineered spoken-word archives and shuddering dancefloor deliveries have helped to straddle past, present and future; a cult act whose recipe has been rewarded by a faithful fanbase engrossed by their conceptual execution.
Except, it is not merely the fringes of the musical conversation that have now sat up with an intrigued gleam in their eye. This one-off stop in Halifax comes a month before the group’s biggest headline show to date at Alexandra Palace; their last three records have all troubled the upper echelons of the charts. For founder J. Willgoose, Esq and company, this August sojourn in Calderdale is more than another gig; it is the realisation of a cherished dream.
Ostensibly still touring 2024’s The Last Flight, and the tragic euphoria of its subject Amelia Earhart, the band opt for a career-spanning affair instead across ninety terrific minutes, with PSB rattling their way around every corner of their catalogue, from Electra’s throbbing kraut-build to the post-disco reinvention of Night Mail and The Other Side’s triumphal electronica. The presence of female vocalist EERA continues to add a fascinating dimension to their sound, carrying the refrains of The Fun of It’s arch-pop bombast to completion; elsewhere, The Pit’s cinematic rumble remains brutally transportive with added ballast, while Monsoons chugs forth with a resounding heaviness.
This cross-genre mash, triggered amid the shadow of an old-fashioned flight-instrument deck, helps explain just how Public Service Broadcasting have managed to push beyond the apparent limitations of their approach on record. By the time Go! conjures a genteel outbreak of pogo action, Willgoose appears genuinely moved, hand firm against his heart. Magnificence, any way you cut it.