 |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
At the end
of my review of The Limiñanas at the 100 Club back in February 2019 I wrote “I
have a feeling that the band will be selling out a much larger venue next time
they come to play in London”. So, here we are at the Scala in Kings Cross, the band are finally back again and yes,
it is much larger than the 100 Club but it’s still completely packed to the
rafters. I also wrote “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”. Well, it’s been some
journey, that’s for sure. At that 100 Club show they included two new numbers
in the set “Dreams” and “The Last Picture Show” and these pointed the way to a
busy, creative time for the band. Those two songs ended up as part of a superb
new project called L'Épée which included Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the French actress Emmanuelle Seigner. I was lucky enough to see them play in London at the end of 2019, it was another mind-blowing performance
and the year belonged to The Limiñanas and L'Épée.
.jpg) |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
.jpg) |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
Then of course came the
unexpected two-year horror of the COVID pandemic but it certainly didn’t stop
the creative output of Lionel and Marie as they immersed themselves in movie
and TV music culminating in the brilliant score for “The World We Knew" along with “The
Devil Inside Me” and “The Ballad of Linda L.” collaborations with David Menke. Then
with their latest album “De Pelicula”, they have collaborated with the DJ and
Producer Laurent Garnier to produce a hypnotic Electro-Techno-Fuzzed-up monster
of a record. Moving away from the 60’s Garage Rock and Ye-Ye influences somewhat,
this is a thoroughly modern sounding masterpiece that perfectly melds together
Dance and Rock cultures. Live, the new songs work extremely well as is immediately
apparent with the brilliant opening two song salvo of the single “Saul” and “Je
Rentrais Par Le Bois”. To help capture this new direction, the band have
recruited Edi Pistolas, the Chilean musician from the Dark Wave/Post-Punk bands
Panico and Nova Materia to add his electronic sounds, percussion and half-sung
half-rap vocals to the mix. He’s also a compelling and charismatic performer and
he ups the visual impact to the max when he takes centre stage.
.jpg) |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
.jpg) |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
We then get
treated to a superb set encompassing the new album, old favourites such as “Down
Underground” and classic singles like “Dimanche”, “Istanbul Is Sleepy” and “The
Gift”. There’s the superb cover of Can’s “Mother Sky” which they have kind of adopted
as their own and they even cover Lionel’s old band Beach Bitches “Crank”, a
surefire Garage Punk classic that almost blows the roof off the Scala. Talking of
which, the sound at the Scala is pretty good from down at the front but the
lighting less so. There seems to be a shadow from a monitor or speaker
obscuring Marie’s face for most of the set and there’s an extremely low stage
for such a size of venue. This means that you’ve got to work hard for good
views of all the action, and of course, it’s The Limiñanas so there is certainly
plenty of action. I haven’t seen such a compelling and visually exciting live
band since The Soundtrack of Our Lives split up in 2012 – well, possibly Oh!Gunquit would qualify – but in terms of sheer overwhelming, jaw-dropping
spectacle then The Limiñanas are right up there.
 |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
.jpg) |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
Just like The Soundtrack of Our Lives, each member
is integral not only to the band’s sound, but also their look and each member
brings their own character and personality to the party. Whether, its Lionel
hunched over, wringing mind-blowing fuzzed up riffs from his guitar, all wild
hair and impressive beard or Marie’s joyful and original drumming – hammering
her snare and floor-tom, red hair flailing and glowing in the lights. There’s
no cymbals, no high-hat, just a tribal hypnotic and relentless beat. Bassist
Mikey Malaga has a unique style with his low-slung black Fender Precision, it's every
bit the iconic bass look – he swings and sways with his bass, totally hypnotic.
Renaud Picard sings most of the lead vocal parts and adds layers of haunting backing
vocals and acoustic guitar. Then, I suppose most great visual bands have to
have a quiet member, it’s usually the bassist - The Who’s John Entwistle, the
Stones’ Bill Wyman and TSOOL's Kalle Gustafsson spring to
mind – just to keep everything balanced and in check. I guess this role falls
to Alban Barate who although half-hidden at the back, adds some superb guitar
work and keyboards and certainly shouldn’t be overlooked in his contribution to
the sound.
 |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
.jpg) |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
To top it all, I think every great band needs to have an eccentric and
enigmatic member and this position is filled by Ivan Telefunken who has become
something of a cult hero with fans. He’s totally out there and unique,
completely lost in the music, he throws his guitar around wildly before pushing
it against his amp to illicit screams of feedback and white noise which he
skillfully manipulates to add so much texture and atmosphere to The Limiñanas
sound. He also adds keyboards, which are decorated in eye-catching,
multi-coloured polka dots. Ivan is to The Limiñanas what Eno was to Roxy Music,
Blixa was to the Bad Seeds and Johnny Greenwood was to Radiohead - he
fills the role of musical alchemist absolutely perfectly. He also takes over
lead vocals on a raucous version of The Undertones “Teenage Kicks” which closes
the set and goes down a storm, especially with long-time Limiñanas fan Damian
O’Neill, who is in the crowd tonight.
.jpg) |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
 |
| Damian O'Neill of The Undertones with Marie & Lionel Limiñana at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
To digress, it was a pleasure to introduce
them after the show and be reminded that even your favourite musicians can
still be big music fans after all and the mutual appreciation was heart-warming
to see. The band return for an encore and this time it's Marie taking on lead
vocals for a pulsing version of Suicide’s “Cheree” which morphs into a transcendental
mash-up of “Je M’en Vais” and “The Train Creep A-Loopin’”, absolutely stunning!
The outpouring of appreciation and affection at the end of the show was quite
emotional, the band seemed genuinely as happy as us fans did as they stood there
together accepting the acclaim. Well, I said it before but I’ll say it again, I
think next time they visit they are going to need a much bigger venue!
 |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
 |
| The Limiñanas at The Scala, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
For more information on The Limiñanas, please visit their official web-site here. You can check out our feature on the 100 Club show in the Retro Man Blog archive here and the L'Épée show at EartH in Hackney here. Don't forget the special Retrosonic Podcast Episode 37 entitled "Songs The Limiñanas Taught Us" in which I take a look at the band's history including some of their previous and related bands such as Beach Bitches, Les Bellas, Crank and Hair & The Iotas along with a pick of some of their many and varied cover versions. The episode is still available at our archive if you subscribe for free to Retrosonic Podcast at Soundcloud or Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes and Apple Podcasts. You can also listen or download below. You will also find some of our original videos of The Limiñanas and L'Épée if you subscribe to our Retromanblog65 YouTube channel here.
