Lebanon Hanover, The White Hotel, 10th September 2021

Now I don’t do this very often, see the same band back to back, even less in successive nights, but I’m at another new venue tonight to watch Lebanon Hanover again. The differences between last night and tonight are immediate and stark. First off, The White Hotel is typically lofi Mancunian, little more than an old brick building on the outskirts of the city (we’re in Salford). Corrugated shutters and roof, snake pits of wires leading up white washed brick walls. It’s not fancy, but it’s the sort of effortless cool that probably took a lot of work to curate. It really is a bloody good venue. The sound is brilliant too. With all this concrete, it’s trapped and bounces around the small space. It’s screams industrial and fits the mood. Whereas Brudenell Social felt like an inclusive club. Tonight there’s an edge and an air of aggression. Support Autumns is a very different prospect from last night too. One guy with a table full of boxes and wires, spitting out tones and beats, occasional screaming and yelping into a mic with enough echo to be heard next week. It takes me a while to get into it, but I don’t know whether it’s the situation and surroundings but I’m swept up. It still feels like a club in here, but certainly one with a more DIY feel. Very industrial, I can imagine that Lebanon Hanover, based in Berlin feel very at home here. William although from Newcastle definitely had a German twist to his accent when I spoke to him last night. You can’t tell so much from the stage with his delivery very reminiscent of Andrew Eldritch’s low bone shaking tone. The set is largely the same, might be identical but don’t hold me to that. But it does feel more stripped back and minimal in places, I think only due to the building. I park myself closer to the lip of the stage though and can appreciate a lot more of what’s going on on stage. Yes there’s a backing track feeding a lot of the swirling synths and the percussion which to be honest wouldn’t work coming from a traditional kit. There’s so much coming from Larissa’s guitar though and William’s (really nice matt black) bass, you’d be a fool to think they’d just pressed play. To hammer this home Larissa brings the pre-encore set to a close playing keys with one hand and guitar with the other. It’s tempting to attempt to compare the two gigs, but the truth is Lebanon Hanover are consistently brilliant and I’m moved to buy more vinyl from the lovely German merch guy who smiles the sort of smile that says ‘I know you from somewhere’.