I met this guy at a gig and apropos of not much, he said "You must go to see Efterklang, whatever you do, you have to go and see Efterklang". He told me that when he saw them last, it made him cry, that he suddenly found himself with tears running down his face. Slightly cynical, I went to see them of course, I had to check this one out.

To tell the story more fully, he and I were both at another music event in London, a couple of days before. We were strangers and were introduced to each other as we both 'review stuff'. Neither of us are exactly new to this music business, certainly to speak for myself, long in the tooth is a phrase you might apply. We found a bit to talk about, this and that, before that night's show. All of a sudden, and actually within a few sentences of our introduction, my new found friend came out with this insistence that I just had to go and see Efterklang. I'll be quite honest, they were a band I had heard of, read about, and considered probably worthy but I hadn't got round to them, never in fact heard a note they had produced. This claim about their power to induce to tears was the subject of some conversation that night. None of the rest of the little group of us could think of such an occasion, except maybe for other reasons, such as the night someone stage dived my glasses into my face at a punk gig about two years ago. That produced tears of a completely different kind.

So - Efterklang. As it happened, and the reason for the conversation, was that they were playing a couple of nights later. I'd missed the one where they performed with a full orchestra and that might have even put me off. Even better, at this one they were supported by Esben and The Witch, a band I'd been wanting to catch up with. Arrangements were therefore made, railway journeys were undertaken, and I duly found myself three rows back in an audience intensely interested and polite in equal measure.

Esben were great in a minor way, drowning in Theremin throb and the almost constant shimmering of a high hat beaten with a soft stick. There was yowl and howl, dreams fighting through the cotton wool clouds of sleeping tablets. Impressively, they chose to throw overboard much conventional song structure, the mood reflected in a stage which was mainly in darkness with shafts of even greater darkness. Esben and whoever your Witch might be, I'll be back for more soon.

And onto the main event.

Efterklang are Danish, three of them being childhood friends on an island somewhere before they made that transition to Copenhagen. The core of the band are Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen, Thomas Husmer and Rasmus Stolberg. On tour they are joined by what they describe as their 'beloved live-band members' - Peter Broderick, Frederik Teige, Heather Woods Broderick and Niklas Antonson. Efterklang have been going since 2000, garnering much critical acclaim along the way. They recently signed to 4AD and released their third album Magic Chairs through them in February this year.

That was about what I had managed to find out in between my conversation and tonight. That and they have a reputation for live shows. This didn't quite prepare for what I got tonight. They are a large and complex outfit, Casper and Rasmus firmly stage front. Casper leads on vocals, Rasmus was equipped only with a bass, a smile and not even the pretence of a mic stand. The rest of the band were arranged on rising staging towards the back but up at the front, it was a competition of natty cardigans and big grins from those two. They really looked like the most pleased people in music today - not smug, just immensely stoked to be up on stage in front of what was without doubt their people, with few casual onlookers tonight.

The structure of the music became apparent, in that it is exceptionally cleverly and carefully assembled. They are sometimes lazily classified as indie, this was very definitely post-rock of the art house and art school persuasion. They are heavily steeped and assisted with wind instruments. By the time they were three tracks in, on 'Mirador', there was a flute and a recorder joining the trombone, and Casper's vocals were being augmented by keyboardist Heather Woods Broderick. It swooped and it soared and it climbed. Another track and the cardigans were shed to reveal preposterous braces and the grins on the two up front just got bigger. It might be explained by the cardigan and the 50's hair-cut but Casper seemed as comforting as a favourite uncle, while Rasmus with his grin beguiled and mesmerised like Kaa the snake in the Jungle Book.

They brought us throbbing undertow, more of that growing male / female vocalisation, and brass of the loveliest nature. At another point, in 'Step Aside', strobe lights dominated strobe music. 'Caravan' progressed with tribal chants and complex rhythms into 'Harmonics', the band demanding the fullest audience participation in finger clicking and clapping. By the time we got to 'Alike', there were 5 pieces of brass, even drummer Thomas Husmer equipped with a trumpet. 'Raincoats' found me with my eyes closed, dancing somewhere inside my head.


We got to another track. There were rolling pianos which dropped into a duet between Casper and Heather. This somehow ground and wound to a moment of silence, and I mean SILENCE. Two thousand people in there and not a word or a cough or a titter. I have never seen anything quite like like it. Casper slowly looked up and grinned and eventually it broke. This feat was repeated not once but twice, you could have heard a gnat sneeze. As this held, a curious thing happened. I found myself slowly welling up and a slight tear escaped from the side of my eye. I cannot explain it except by intense shared experience. Did my friend set me up, plant the idea? Possibly, but this wasn't ersatz, definitely some genuine force of emotion. Eventually this all broke down into tumultuous applause and the band left the stage with grins bigger than the Cheshire Cat.

Of course they came back for an encore, and even as I thought they couldn't recapture the moment, somehow they did and it all played out. I was half convinced that I had witnessed the end moment of rock and without any doubt at all this was the next thing. Astounding. Being the Efterklang newbie, as the lights came up I found myself asking random strangers just what was that track? Eventually I found a set list and answered the question - 'Cutting Ice To Snow'

In the aftermath, I've listened to the records, which are lovely, but this is a band you simply have to see live.

Also since then, I engaged in a bit of email correspondence with a record company person who asked me how I'd found the gig. I said that I'd found it ...emotional... I said no more than that. She immediately mailed me back to say that she could never see them play that particular track without shedding a tear. Spooky to some tune, what is going on?

The set list is mainly from the new album with a couple of older ones

Full Moon
I Was Playing Drums
Mirador
Me Me Me The Brick House
Step Aside
Caravan
Harmonics
Alike
Raincoats
Modern Drift
Cutting Ice To Snow

Mirror Mirror
The Soft Beating


The Efterklang tour continues in Europe but they are back in the UK in August for some festival dates; Standon Calling and the Green Man.

Myspace:

• Efterklang on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads