Show. Petersburg

An album from 2019, but one that really belongs on these pages. Hence, I present you the LP by Dutch band Petersburg, Show.

Petersburg featured on this blog in the review of the live show of Canshaker Pi, what may prove to be the band's last after all, now all liveshows in The Netherlands were cancelled and most likely for weeks more to come, as the Covid-19 peak is not expected for another one to two weeks. (And a lot of people under 30 and especially under 20 have a hard time with social distancing.)

Petersburg played an aggressive and impressive support slot where no bars were held and impressive, alternative riffs flew around like there was no tomorrow for the Tolhuistuin. Which proved right, for a while at least. I bought the LP after the show and promised to come back to you if I liked the album. Here I am.

Show is an LP holding no information and the band is not easy to find on the internet. So I will stick to the music. Show is certainly less ruthless than Petersburg live. This has in part to do with the volume, but my impression is also that the band played some new or totally newly arranged versions of songs as well.

Several songs on Show are far more laidback. They remind me of Sparklehorse's first album and this is not happening for the first time in the past weeks, as I could have mentioned the same in Canshaker Pi's last album and did in my reviews of Klangstof and Pictish Trail. It's time I played Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot', I'm guessing here, once again. A Dutch band I'm thinking of is Moon Moon Moon.

Show begins with a hard, alternative rocksong, 'Today', but after that the mood slowly but surely mellows out. The singing is subdued, a bit limp even. The singer doesn't really sing most of the time. It is a talk-singing with a darkish, subdued voice. In other songs it is a light voice, moving towards whispering the vocals. This gives the album its own character but also a Sparklehorse influence.

Photo Wo. Petersburg live, 7-3-20

So, I don't know if it is true, it gives me the impression that this is a private project, assembled by one person before a band stepped in. The power of the live band Petersburg is mostly missing on Show. This comes with an upside. Little, alternative pearls like 'Good' come forward. Small, delicate, breakable. There may not be something to laugh about as is sung in 'Good', there's enough to enjoy. There's even room for a short instrumental at the end of side A.

The start of the B side is straightforward. A solid drum going straight ahead, but nothing as experimental as I heard on stage. I can't escape a thought on R.L. Stevenson's famous book about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Petersburg certainly has two faces. I notice that I like both. The album is extremely fine to play in the home. Live the band is exciting to listen to as so much is going on in the arrangement between the three (bass) guitarists and the vocal melody to be surprised and even baffled every once and a while.

I will not go as far as Willem Smit of Canshaker Pi did on stage and declare Petersburg's album in hindsight the best album of 2019, the album certainly possesses the strength to grow into my list of favourite albums of 2019 and who knows of the decade.

Wo.

You can buy the LP here:

https://geertruida.net/gshop/product/petersburg-show/



or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g