Right Hand Left Hand at Swn 2011
It's 4pm on day four of Swn Festival and the small room above the pub at Dempsey's is full and very warm, experimental rock duo Right Hand Left Hand seem nervous when they initially take to the stage area but they quickly engross the watching crowd with their hypnotic , effects laden tunes. The duo create surprisingly big soundscapes (including just a smattering of vocal input) with help from two drum kits, Looper pedals and a variety of guitars, and part of the fun of the set is in watching them swap repeatedly from drums to one or another of the guitars, recording layer upon layer of sound on those pedals before they have a big wave of noise to play the final riffs over, needless to say they look exhausted by the end of their set.
They don't really get the opportunity to interact with the audience much given the amount of running around they're doing but when they do it's often with surprise at how well their tunes have been received, the two new songs they play especially get a huge cheer, these feature more complex riffs and are very much post-rock in feel, building to spine tingling climaxes. It's a solid, interesting set and the audience are very appreciative, with good reason.