Gig Review: Oracle Sisters At Village Underground
A night of magic, theatre and intimacy.
Psychedelic indie-pop stars ‘Oracle Sisters’ played their fourth and final London date of 2023 to a sold-out Village Underground on 5th December, the penultimate gig of the year for the trio. In 2023, Oracle Sisters toured the world, playing 56 different gigs and selling out 37 of them. And this gig might’ve just been their best yet.
Before the main event, the lively crowd were presented with singer and acoustic guitarist Antonin Bartherotte, who aptly adopted the epithet ‘local barde’ for his 2023 summer tour. Antonin was a feast for the eyes - like a french Hozier, he swept his shoulder-length hair from his eyes periodically to stare into the room as if it were a pub of ten, not an audience of 800. The ease he played with was infectious; when the audience got a little too rowdy, Antonin would artfully halt the song and hold his breath, waiting for an anticipatory quiet before he’d begin again. Soon, the audience listened intently of their own accord. This was part of his charm; ‘thank you so much for listening, I don’t quite know why I’m here’ he chuckled, and then teetered on tiptoes on the edge of his chair, careening like a majestic eagle above the audience. Despite the heavy dose of French cascading through the audience, he didn’t shy away from the fact many would be unfamiliar with his songs, presenting the crowd with easy riffs to throw back as he raced forwards with new tracks. It was a new kind of troubadour charm, it was cheeky and fun, it was Paris in soft light and the promise of romance.
A short 15-minute break and Oracle Sisters appeared, a tapestry-like background picking up the luscious red of the neckties both Lewis Lazar and Christopher Willat adorned, as well as the flowers draped across their microphones. The set was nothing short of a triumph. Early on they played a personal favourite, ‘Hail Mary’, videographers and photographers worming their way through the packed crowd snapping the effect of their stardom. Not one third in, Finnish musician Julia Johansen appeared from behind the drums like a dream and played ‘High Moon’ and ‘Ruby on the Run’ with delicious ease. The latter song was recorded, alongside all their first full-length 2023 album Hydranism, on the Grecian Island of Hydra during the pandemic (where Fontaine’s DC’s Carlos O’Connell joined them to bellow old country songs into the hedonistic night); in Julia’s softness you could heard the lapping ocean on a sparkling, abandoned shore.
As if this wasn't enough, the band quickly spun into their biggest hit ‘Asc. Scorpio’. Though the tune came earlier in the set than I anticipated, the crowd jostled to the astral indie-rock melody, eager for more. Admittedly, I had underestimated their discography before the gig, but their purposeful, cherry-picked setlist here didn’t give me the chance to. This self-assured confidence maintained as the band played a gorgeous, elegant rendition of ‘Tramp Like You’, keys swimming hypnotically; Christopher commanded the audience whistle along with him, dashed in deep purple light, and the crowd outroed themselves as the band grinned over the swaying bodies. Later, when Lewis swung his arm in the air for a beat, the whole crowd caught on, receptive to their gleeful spontaneity as the set breathed a life of its own. I hadn’t seen a London crowd so excited to comply in a long time, at the complete mercy of the band’s magic. This could’ve been 2017, when Lewis and Christopher spent a year writing songs daily for a Parisian cabaret down the road from le Moulin Rouge amidst ‘a healthy group of Tarot card readers, Astrologers and soothsayers’.
To finish, the band elongated their dance-pop hit ‘RBH’ adding an improvisation where lead guitar twisted and pulled at the melody line whilst Julia and Christopher shared a microphone, perfectly harmonising the punchy chorus. After this, Julia tossed flowers into the audience as if upturning ritualised love in a celebration of music and community. Rapturous applause, and they were back for more; mixed in here was their newly released cover of ‘Under Control’ by the Strokes, delicate strings emboldening the tranquillity of the track. They finished with ‘Dirty Old Town’ by The Pogues, dedicated to Shane MacGowan, who passed away from pneumonia on November 30th this year. The band and their instrumentalists were up and dancing across the stage, Antonin appeared again to share the mic, the crowd swayed and sang with a loud, awed clarity… More flowers for the audience, and like magic they were gone.
I soon realised I hadn’t thought of anything in the past 90 minutes - not the pressing deadlines at work, nor the damp in my flat back in Brockley or the dire state of British politics. I had just been there with them. As I left, I heard this sentiment repeated tenfold: ‘I just didn’t want that to end!’... ‘neither did I!’ a group of old friends gushed. In a 2021 interview with DIY magazine, the band were asked if fans could take one thing from their music, what would it be? ‘Liberation of mind, body and soul’, they said, ‘we’d like people to feel uplifted’. For all intents and purposes, Oracle Sisters could stop now - they’ve done what they’d set out to do, and then some. But this set proved to me that Oracle Sisters are soaring, and they won’t be coming down for quite some time.