Live review: Efterklang at the Button Factory

While I would be loathe to refer to yet another band’s music as ethereal (the prevalent factor in a lot of the music I‘m currently piping into my head) there really is no other way of putting it for most of Efterklang’s live shows.
They arrived into Whelan’s of Dublin not so long ago and dazzled a small, attentive crowd with their passion, musicianship, delicacy and joy. Their return visit on Saturday night, to the newly revamped, and beautifully lit, Button Factory (formerly the Temple Bar Music Hovel) was simply sensational.
As was the case the last time, the band is in nearly matching outfits. Some of them, mostly Rasmus, have been manning the t-shirt stand before the gig and the octet eventually bound onto the stage, effervescent and beaming, clearly as thrilled to be back as the crowd are to have them. Peppered about a stage packed with all forms of instruments, they launch into a set that includes a beguiling Swarming, Step Aside, Chapter 6 and a scattering of tracks from their most recent Parades album, Frida Found a Friend and Mirador to name a few. A new track, Mirror Mirror, gets a run and on this evidence it could be the single that introduces the group to a (the bastard muso in me grits my teeth…) much larger following.
Efterklang are a band that has somehow managed to find that bridge between the electronic glitch and the organic instrument. They dash about the stage, changing musical equipment seamlessly and all of them participate in the frequent choral vocals. In between songs, a rosy-cheeked Casper engages warmly with the crowd, sharing jokes and laughing, and the band seem to get on so well; it makes you wonder if they could ever have not been together.
No song is a disappointment and when they finish with the gorgeous Collecting Shields and Step Aside, the gleaming glam shoes of Casper toddle off with rest of his Danish troupe to rapturous applause and a palpable elation amongst the chattering fans that you really do not find at many gigs these days.