Esben & The Witch, St Phil’s Church, Salford

One of the most depressing things about the current rise in dark, atmospheric music has been the sheer inability of venues around the country to be able to match the depth of sound with their own PA systems. Perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise – after years of having guitar bands just wanting a bit of fuzz, a bit more reverb on the mic, please, and a couple a crate or two of stella to stay happy, the proliferation of bands that need a little bit more must have come as a shock to owners of grim, sticky floored rooms the world over.

Maybe Esben & The Witch are a band that get on alright when they’ve got a bad sound man working on an outdated system – in fact, they’d still probably blow you away. But once you’ve seen them in a space as perfect at St. Phil’s Church in Salford, it’s difficult to turn back. Just like all those people who seem positively affronted with television in anything less than HD, this gig was one for the purists.

Of course, churches are built with acoustics in mind, but St. Phil’s have backed that up with an absolutely killer sound system, crystal clear with bass you could feel through the feet of your chair. In fairness, that would all be for nothing if Esben & The Witch didn’t make the kind of racket that could easily be described as devastating. Given the band’s name, describing them as haunting couldn’t come across as an anything other than a cliché, but it’s certainly true, weaving a rich tapestry of sound through their myriad instruments.

One onlooker comments that this could easily just be a hipster take on Florence Welch – a lazy criticism, but one that stings so much because of the hint of truth that lay within. For all the ambient, brooding noises made, this is still a band built around the elegant power of singer Rachel Davies’ voice, and they’re certainly at their best when she is in full flow, wailing like a woman possessed, Zola Jesus without being quite so terrifying.

Brilliant as they are, you get the feeling that they’re going to have to move forward if they’re to keep ahold of the attention they’ve been getting so far. Their debut album, ‘Violet Cries’, was superb, but more encompassing of an aesthetic than being a set of memorable tracks. Over the course of a live set, that tells, and though the energy levels onstage keep up, it’s hard to keep the concentration fixed, especially when each track essentially offers more of the same. They’re enchanting, certainly – but it’s difficult leaving a gig and being more excited about the venue itself than the band that have just played there.