The ViseMenn at the International Pop Overthrow 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
One of the main points of the International Pop Overthrow is to introduce music from far and wide to the shores of Britain. It is an ethos that has served David Bash, the organiser, the conveyor of such thought extremely well over the last 12 years and going into the week-long festival’s 13th year shows no signs of abating or slowing down.
From the southern half of Norway, a country with much musical affinity in recent years with Liverpool, came the corporeal form of ViseMenn, the hybrid of pop, heavier rock and the delicate touch of the Progressive in which the stuff of legends is born. For the crowd inside The Cavern, it was almost as if David Bash had wished everybody present a very Happy Christmas and to fill their boots completely to the sounds of this very cool but outrageously good band.
Music is a powerful weapon, it can install many different emotions in the heart, it can stir passion and fortitude to the point of alarming highs and sensitive, creative depths of feelings that had been well and truly hidden for years and in ViseMenn, that Nordic outlook coupled with the dynamic overflow of Progressive was just exhilarating.
Half an hour though is not long enough when it comes to a band with Progressive in the veins, it can take that long sometimes for a band to truly get going and to get the heads of their willing captives to bounce with the same temperance that the mystery of the song requires. Yet ViseMenn managed to not only install the thought of wanting more, they left the stage victorious and to great acclaim. Once more it seems that David Bash knows more about how to put on a show than many others.
Tracks such as Destined Salvation, The Bright and the Shining, You Are, Don’t Let It Break and Begging You Please all gave the resounding, almost spectral like appeal which broke up the ambient pop that had made the Friday afternoon special to that point and injected a sense of the sophistication to the occasion.
Norway has produced a string of high quality musicians of late, many to whom Liverpool is a second home, ViseMenn offer yet another cause for celebration that there is such strong links between the two countries. Outstanding musicianship in which the heart can only rejoice at!
Ian D. Hall