18/10/2018 Saint Agnes @ The Borderline

I'd been hearing good things about Saint Agnes for a while before I finally managed to see them at Camden Rocks Festival last summer. They were one of the best acts I saw at the festival in 2018 and I knew I had to go and see them again. So I find myself at The Borderline this Thursday night. The venue has changed dramatically since my last visit, and not for the better in my opinion. The old bars and split floor level that allowed for good views even from near the back or side have all been swept away - to be replaced by a long and shiny completely new bar area towards the back. What was once an intimate club venue full of character and atmosphere has been refurbed into a bland and sterile room designed to part punters from their money as quickly and efficiently as possible. Past experience of the venue's once reasonable but in more recent times rapidly inflated beer prices mean I don't go near the bar. I took the precaution of a visit to the ex-Marquee Club Wetherspoons down the road first...

The Borderline is packed! I didn't realise the band had already built up such a following - this is a very impressive turnout for a pretty underground band on a Thursday night. The atmosphere is dark and brooding before the band take to the stage - there is menace in the air. Something very dramatic is obviously about to happen. And it does.

The stage set is dark and atmospheric - it matches the band's performance perfectly.

The music is dark and heavy - imagine if Led Zeppelin wrote the soundtrack to a Hammer horror film.

There is definitely a strong blues influence at work here, and you very much get the feeling you are listening to 'the Devil's music'.

Kitty the singer is quite an enigma and somehow seems not quite of this world - like a much darker version of Katie Jane Garside from Queen Adreena. She invites all the girls in the room up for a stage invasion during one song - a risky idea as unless it's the last song you are probably going to want to somehow get them all off the stage again for the rest of the show. However, I get the feeling that Saint Agnes are not a band afraid to take risks.

Kitty's performance is mesmerising and slightly disturbing - this is a band you will definitely remember if you see them live. Saint Agnes don't just play their songs - they give a real performance.

Some bands just get up on stage and play their songs - often very well, but it's all a bit clinical and sterile. There is nothing clinical and sterile about Saint Agnes - they are raw and visceral - dark and disturbing. Not for nothing do they call their fans 'The Coven'. Well would you really expect anything less of a band with a song called 'The Witching Hour'?

All too soon, the band's performance is over. And it's not yet the Witching Hour. It's not closing time either - some ne'er do well suggests we go to the pub. No one cares if it's a 'school night' - we repair to The Angel nearby.....