Lanterns on the Lake at Halifax Minster: A euphoric set in a suitably captivating venue

Formed in 2007 by core members Hazel Wilde (vocals, guitar, piano) & Paul Gregory (guitar, production), alongside former drummer, Oliver Ketteringham, Lanterns on the Lake have attracted a dedicated following through their cinematic, orchestral take on indie rock. Along the way, the Tyneside ensemble has been joined by Bob Allen (bass), Angela Chan (violin, piano), and more recently, Radiohead drummer Phillip Selway, who stepped in on the band’s recent album, Versions of Us, and the accompanying tour. Released in June 2023, this album continued a run of remarkably consistent projects and received overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Selway began the night with a charming, low-key supporting set, where he performed some of his solo material. He described the feeling of his drum kit looming behind him and joked that he was ‘cheating’ on it with the piano and guitar, before briefly mentioning some of the memorable places the instrument has taken him over the years.

The main act took to the stage in due course, instantly enthralling a crowd of passionate head-bobbers. After launching their set with the opening tracks from their recent release, the band played fan-favourite, ‘Every Atom’. It’s the lead single from their Mercury-nominated 2020 masterpiece, Spook the Herd, an album that beautifully entrenches itself in discussions of alienation, loss, and the surreal state of politics we are living through. This track, in particular, takes the form of a haunting elegy, depicting a state of desperate, senseless yearning. Wilde’s heart-wrenching lyrics beautifully navigate the theme of grief and are complemented by Gregory’s screeching guitar intermissions.

The ensemble effortlessly switched from sombre tracks such as this to the searing walls of noise featured in their heavier tunes. ‘Through the Cellar Door’, for example, interchanges between the poles of the band’s discography, with moments of subdued softness building to soaring, almost-shoegaze-y guitar blasts. This song is Lanterns on the Lake’s most popular and, in 2015, was featured on the soundtrack of the cult-classic indie video game, Life is Strange, drawing a wave of praise from the game’s fanbase.

Backing vocals were occasionally provided by Angela Chan, the band’s violinist, who used no microphone and instead relied on the resonance of the venue to propel her voice down the aisles – one of the many ways in which the setting of the minster beautifully complimented the performance provided by Lanterns on the Lake. Additionally, the band have been performing with two drummers on this tour. Matt Hardy joined Selway and elevated the thunderous percussion. The impact of this was most noticeably felt in ‘Blue Screen Beams’, where the force of two kits sent a militaresque rumble echoing around the nave of the venue.

A pleasant surprise came halfway through the set with the band’s decision to play ‘The Crawl’, a track from the 2015 album, Beings, that Wilde admitted to not having performed in years. Admittedly, the setlist did somewhat neglect their earlier work — a great shame considering there are some real gems in the first three albums. No music from their sophomore LP Until the Colours Run was played; the project from 2013 includes some phenomenal tracks such as the rapturous ‘Our Cool Decay’, emotional piano ballad ‘Green and Gold’, and lead single ‘Another Tale from Another English Town’ — the most likely to have featured on the setlist. Of course, it would have been brilliant to have seen some of these songs live, but I’m sure they’ve had their moment in the sun and it makes complete sense that the band would rather focus on some of their new releases. Besides, with a catalogue as impossibly consistent as Lanterns on the Lake’s, any random selection of songs would have provided a wonderful hour and a half of music.

The sublime, other-worldly ambience constructed by the band was concluded with the aptly-named closing track from Versions of Us, ‘Last Transmission’. Wilde belted the lyrics, “I’m sure there was one last thing to say before this signal fails,” as the song reached its roaring climax and was met with a profoundly deserved standing ovation.

It’ll come as no shock to find that a discography and stage presence this compelling is certainly deserving of some stretching, echoing record-breaking crowd that could fill a million Halifax Minsters. The band’s obvious worthiness of greater appreciation has been articulated many times, and while this is certainly a sentiment that I share, I would want to make sure it does not distract from the recognition of their ability to thrive in intimate, unique venues such as this one. Saying this is not to diminish the undeniable grandeur of their performance and their music, but rather to draw attention to the unreplicable relationship between an artist and an audience who can actually see and hear each other.

With Lanterns on the Lake, every lyric is not just sung, but painted on the faces of the band members. This glaringly apparent passion travels through the air in every word and every note. It is as Wilde sings in the track, ‘When It All Comes True’, the euphoric, orchestral opening track of Spook the Herd – “Right there in the ink, I think I finally talked to you”.