The Limiñanas at The 100 Club London February 13th

The Limiñanas at The 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

This was my first live experience of The Limiñanas and I was curious to find out how the Perpignan based duo of Lionel and Marie Limiñana would recreate their studio sound on stage. Each album features a somewhat bewildering cast of guest musicians and vocalists whose names have become more familiar as their reputation grows. Anton Newcombe from The Brian Jonestown Massacre guested on the excellent single “Istanbul Is Sleepy” and has gone on to produce their latest outstanding LP “Shadow People”. French actress Emmanuelle Seigner sings on that album’s title track and Joy Division and New Order’s Peter Hook adds his instantly recognisable trademark bass to "The Gift", following up his appearance on their last album "Malamore". The Limiñanas are the band that have everything, everything except cymbals that is. The first thing I see as I walk into the 100 Club is a huge bass drum resplendent with the band’s logo, pushed right to the front of the shallow stage. There’s also a floor tom and a snare drum but there's not a cymbal or Hi-Hat in sight, just a tambourine fixed to the floor tom for added percussion and that’s it. The Limiñanas sound is based on Marie’s pounding hypnotic Mo Tucker style. She is a remarkable drummer; how she can keep that rhythm up throughout the show without being exhausted, I just don’t know. 

The Limiñanas at The 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

The Limiñanas at The 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

They are certainly an unorthodox band, Lionel attacks his guitar and cranks out some excellent riffs but doesn't sing at all during the show, his microphone is only used to say thank you every now and then. What Marie and Lionel have done is to assemble a quite superb band around them to realise their sound and vision perfectly. Each member has their own distinct character and personality and there's a great chemistry between all of the musicians on stage; this is certainly not just a bunch of session musicians thrown together to do a tour. Ivan Telefunken almost steals the show despite being set up behind Marie’s drums. He is a constant blur of motion. If he’s not swaying along to the music or adding backing harmonies, he’s playing a small keyboard or throwing his guitar and ukulele about with abandon. One minute he’s attacking his guitar violently with a bottleneck slide and the next it’s a violin bow. At one point, he even bangs it alarmingly with a large metal spoon. All the tools of his trade are brightly painted with multi-coloured polka dots and it makes a great visual contrast as the rest of the band are decked out all in black. Renaud Picard takes on the main male vocal parts and acoustic guitar and behind him is Alban Barate on guitars, ukulele and keyboards. The lead female vocals are handled by Nika Leeflang, who also bashes away on a tambourine, often half hidden behind her swirling hair. To her side, Bassist Mickey Malaga looks cool with his low-slung Fender Precision bass, Paul Simonon and JJ Burnel style, just as any good bassist should. 

The Limiñanas at The 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

The Limiñanas at The 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

The Limiñanas are not only a visually impressive live band; their sound is also extremely cinematic. Throughout their albums and indeed tonight’s show, they drop in instrumental interludes such as “Tigre du Bengale” that mix exotic Eastern, Turkish and Moroccan motifs. Overall, their sound is infused with Ennio Morricone’s Spaghetti Western soundscapes and John Barry’s Spy movie and TV theme tunes with twanging surf guitar riffs and an impressive sense of dynamics. Ivan coaxes weird feedback and noises out of a strange contraption and this adds layers of distortion and depth to the proceedings. This evocative approach is also to the fore in their spoken word vignettes such as “Dimanche”, which are obviously heavily influenced by Serge Gainsbourg’s classic “Histoire de Melody Nelson”. One of my favourite songs on the new album is the title track “Shadow People” which in the recorded version features vocals by the actress and musician Emmanuelle Seigner. It reminds me of The Soundtrack of Our Lives “Midnight Children” in which the Swedish Psych Rock legends invited Jane Birkin to duet with their singer Ebbot Lundberg. The good thing is that, rather like TSOOL, The Limiñanas take their varied influences and twist them into something totally unique. You can sense that they are enthusiastic music fans but they are certainly not trapped by their inspirations and do not fit easily into any particular genre. After all, Lionel has gone on record as saying that The Limiñanas basic rule is to “respect no dogma”. This is apparent in some of the cover versions they have recorded by acts as diverse as The Beach Boys, Jay Reatard, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Kinks and Lords of The New Church. Actually, I was disappointed they never played LOTN’s “Russian Roulette” even though it was down on the set-list as a possible encore. Nouvelle Vague have already recorded a Bossa Nova version of “Dance With Me” and with the new Stiv Bators documentary, maybe The Lords of The New Church will finally get a well-deserved reappraisal!

The Limiñanas at The 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

The Limiñanas at The 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Two unfamiliar numbers really stand out, “Dreams” and “Last Picture Show” turn out to be unreleased songs from a new project called L'épée which features Lionel and Marie along with Anton Newcombe and Emmanuelle Seigner. I’ve been told they have an album’s worth of material already recorded and that will definitely be something to keep an eye on. Despite incorporating some challenging, discordant elements into their music, The Limiñanas never lose that all-important sense of melody, particularly on the fuzzed up riffs of their debut single “I’m Dead” and my personal favourite “Funeral Baby”, both of which, despite the rather morbid titles, are as catchy as hell. Nika’s voice really shines on these two numbers and her breathy, sultry style is the perfect match. It wasn’t a surprise to discover that she is also a singer songwriter in her own right with two excellent EP’s out under the name The Nika Leeflang Project. One of the highlights of the gig for me was “Crank” which was a blast of raw Garage Rock adrenaline. I didn’t know this song at all but after a bit of research found out it was from one of Lionel’s old bands, The Beach Bitches. Trying to track down more information led me to discover Renaud’s band Crank who were so inspired by The Beach Bitches song that they named themselves and their debut album after it as well as recording their own version. I must just add that the Crank album is superb and the fact that they mention The Prisoners as an influence earns them extra points. 

The Limiñanas at The 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

The Limiñanas at The 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

One of the best things about having a “new favourite band”, especially one with such an eclectic musical palette, is that you can happily embark on a voyage of discovery, looking into what each member was up to before, along with any side projects, collaborations and unknown cover versions. For example, before The Limiñanas Lionel and Marie were in Les Bellas and they have an excellent compilation album of early releases called “Belladellic” which is well worth getting hold of. So I’m now on the trail of Pascal Comelade, Bertrand Belin, Ultra Orange, The Toxic Farmers and The Llamps and I’ve even managed to get hold of a compilation of Perpignan based Garage Rock bands. Oh, and I just noticed Hair & The Iotas too so it looks like I have a lot of listening to do. Anyway, back to the gig and a totally wired version of Can’s “Mother Sky” hints at yet another side of the band and that hypnotic driving rhythm certainly makes sense. By coincidence, I bump into The Undertones Damian O’Neill who also plays in the The Everlasting Yeah a band who merge Can’s motorik beat with Television's Richard Lloyd/Tom Verlaine entwined guitar style to great effect. Damian is as enthusiastic about the show as I am and it’s nice to see him shake hands and congratulate bassist Mickey at the end of their set. Up next is the excellent “Betty & Johnny” from their second album “Crystal Anis” and they encore with a raucous sing-along version of “Gloria”. This segues into a manic instrumental and as the song implodes and the set ends, the band look genuinely touched by the warmth of the reaction from the crowd. I am so pleased that I got the chance to be there, right down the front of the packed out 100 Club as I have a feeling that the band will be selling out a much larger venue next time they come to play in London. However, the most exciting thing of all is that musically The Limiñanas have not set themselves any boundaries, they can evolve in any way they choose. So as a fan, it will be fascinating to continue following them on the journey that lies ahead.

For more information on The Limiñanas please check out their official web-site or their Facebook page. Nika Leeflang's music can be found at her Nika Songs website. For more of our photos of the 100 Club gig please head on over to the Retro Man Blog Facebook and there are more videos at our YouTube channel.