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metamatic.com exclusive
A review of the show in Krakow, by Pani Bufetowa:
I’ll be honest with you: until a few weeks ago, I didn’t really know much about John Foxx. I’d heard the name and knew the Ultravox connection, but that’s about it. Still, I’m lucky in that the fiancé knows enough about music to fill a hefty hard disk (a possible project in the making…), so off we went to the concert last weekend – the last of the Unsound festival.
The gig was at Kraków’s Municipal Engineering Museum – a converted tram depot in Kazimierz. We were lucky/keen enough to get there early enough to position ourselves right in front of the stage, which was possibly the best thing that happened to anyone, anywhere, ever. After a gorgeous performance by Chris & Cosey, the stage was set up for John Foxx and The Maths, and boy did it look classy: three keyboard stations spaced round the stage, and the sleekest electronic drum kit you’ve ever seen at the back. But once the band got on stage, the wow factor went through the roof. Serafina Steer (keyboard & bass) and Hannah Peel (keyboard & violin) were both stunning, Benge and his drums cut a sharp outline against the projector screen, and Foxx – right at the front, of course – was as cool as he was foxy. And once they started playing… WOW.
There were the dramatic “Catwalk”, the anthemic “Summerland”, the unsettling “No-One Driving”, The Maths cool and collected, Foxx dramatic and with an impeccable sense of timing. To say he has stage presence would be to sell him seriously short: he owned the hall, and the crowd loved him. The classics were updated to make them sharper, slicker, stompier, while still unmistakeably rooted in the 1980s.
Foxx’s voice was powerful and perfectly matched by The Maths’ ladies; the synth bloops were balanced by the violin and bass, with Benge’s silhouette tirelessly attacking his drums throughout. There was no getting away without an encore: they came back to play the dreamy “The Good Shadow” from the recent album “Interplay”, followed by “Underpass” from the seminal “Metamatic”. A thoroughly excellent gig all round: there was dancing, electronics, dry ice, great music, visuals and atmosphere. But my most enduring memory will be of Foxx’s cheekbones.
Text and images © Pani Bufetowa.
