Have you ever looked forward to seeing your favourite band play their new single on a late-night talk show, only to be disappointed when the sound and performance quality is downright terrible? Poorly mixed vocals and tinny guitar tones are the norm for TV appearances, and while a few stand out (Saturday Night Live manages to get it right at least a couple times a year, and Conan O’Brien has brought in The Strokes and The White Stripes for residencies upon new album releases), these are exceptions that prove the rule.
But a performance-based program on British station Sky Arts hopes to change that. From the Basement brings high profile artists to London’s Maida Vale studios and captures them in a professional musical space—the way all TV appearances should be.
From the Basement released a DVD late last year, showing off a couple songs by each of their featured artists. The results are surprisingly captivating.
The minimalist presentation is unusual—they’ve opted to simply play clips without a host, and featured no narration or introductions whatsoever. The result is 129 minutes of vivid concert footage starring 17 of indie rock’s heaviest hitters.
While the lack of a studio audience is unconventional, it creates an intimate performance atmosphere where the cameras are welcome, not intrusive, and sound quality comes first.
While the spliced together clips don’t offer much in the way of continuity, and there’s no audience energy to draw upon, From the Basement takes fans to the secret creative hideaway where they long to go—the practice room.
In a dimly lit room with a mass of equipment and cords strewn everywhere, the bands offer rare performances of lesser-known material.
The film catches blues rock legends The White Stripes at the height of their 2005 Get Behind Me Satan period. Clad in a Mariachi costume with pencil-thin moustache, Jack White is in peak form, particularly on thumping single “Blue Orchid” and Captain Beefheart cover “Party Of Special Things To Do.”
For those of us who’ve never been lucky enough to see them live (myself included), the DVD offers a small window into Jack and Meg’s performance dynamic, made all the more captivating given that the White Stripes haven’t toured in years due to Meg White’s anxiety issues.
Dapper Strokes guitarist-turned-solo-artist Albert Hammond Jr. leads his band through spirited renditions of the rollicking “Everyone Gets A Star” and Guided By Voices cover “Postal Blowfish.”
Beck grips what appears to be a spacebox as his oddly dressed backing band (think white boy afros with vintage plaid suits) shuffles through “Motorcade” and “Cellphone’s Dead,” while Jamie Lidell kicks in backing vocals clad in a tightly-belted trench coat and neon blue silk scarf.
The Shins bust out two gloriously catchy singles from their 2007 tour de force Wincing the Night Away, former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker arrives looking like a garage rocking history TA, dancing awkwardly during his song “Fat Children,” and British songstress Laura Marling contributes the delicate “Your Only Doll (Dora).”
It’s an impressive list, bookended by the biggest ticket performances—a total of four songs from Radiohead’s In Rainbows sessions, two of which are performed solo by Thom Yorke. Yorke closes out the tracklist with the moving finale “Videotape.”
That Radiohead are so heavily involved in a television project seems surprising, but the credits reveal that From the Basement is a project of longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. Having a producer of Godrich’s talent at the helm of the sessions is a blessing because he creates the perfect setting for a successful television appearance, and he’s able to record it with a quality that does the artists justice.
From the Basement presents performances that are vivid if not quite energetic, but that’s forgivable because live concert footage simply isn’t the point. As “Videotape” draws to a close, Yorke leans into the mic and whispers, “This is my way of saying goodbye, ’cause I can’t do it face to face.” It’s haunting—just the kind of arresting moment that this series was made for.
