Live Review: Black Sea Dahu In Madrid
A staircase down to the dimly lit general floor of Madrid’s Changó club led me to the area in front of the stage, which was about to temporarily become home to one of the modern indie music scene’s most intriguing acts – Swiss band Black Sea Dahu.
Soon enough, the five-piece group, made up of family and friends of frontwoman Janine Cathrein, took to the stage, which was bathed in shimmering, colorful lights, making for a magical, mystifying atmosphere. When the music started, this atmosphere only grew stronger – with the band showing off their signature haunting mix of indie rock and folk, playing a setlist consisting largely of tracks from their most recent record, Everything, but also including past songs, including their biggest hit, 2018’s “In Case I Fall For You”. And the live Black Sea Dahu experience not only did justice to the studio versions of the songs, but arguably outshone them.
The band’s music is contemplative and emotional, but largely quite subtle and tender, with some great writing, really proficient instrumental work and spacey, enchanting, cinematic production. Fans of musicians like Adrianne Lenker or Laura Marling are sure to find something to enjoy.
The vulnerable, passionate sincerity from Janine Cathrein’s live performances elevated the tracks to a whole new level; her vocals were top-notch, backed up beautifully by vocal harmonies most prominently provided by her sister Vera Cathrein. There was also some impressive musicianship on display, as four out of the five members played several different instruments at different points of the set, all held together and backed up by consistently quality performances by drummer Alon Ben. The set had a distinct natural ambience in its visual and auditory presentations, with recurring themes of leaves and bird sounds. It was an impressively mesmerizing performance, with the band drawing the 600+ people in the venue into their world right from the very start and keeping it up throughout the set, and then during the three-track encore. There was also some pleasant audience interaction, with Janine Cathrein introducing some tracks with the personal stories of their creation, and Vera Cathrein enlisting the help of pianist Ramon Ziegler towards the end of the show for a quick, playful advertisement for what Black Sea Dahu have to offer outside of their music, during which she also handed out free postcards to all those in attendance. Vera also personally joined the staff at the merchandise table after the show, where I was able to thank her and the band for an impressive performance.
From here on out, Black Sea Dahu continue on their Everything tour – they are scheduled to play in Barcelona and Montpellier before returning to their home country of Switzerland for three concerts – in Lausanne, Zürich and Bern. More shows are also set to be announced in the near future – the band confirmed during the show that they would be continuing their tour into northern Europe.
Big thanks to Houston Party Music for the tickets.