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The Antlers meandered onto the Magnet Club stage one by one last Friday night, submerged in a soft radiance of blue-green lighting to serenade Berliners with a well played split-personality set. At times adhering to the rich, melodic waves of heart-piercing sadness layered within their critically acclaimed concept album, Hospice, the overall sound and mood that spilled from the asymmetrical stage neighboring Oberbaumbrücke were dominated by the lighter, pop-infused tones common to their latest LP, Burst Apart.

Up until the beginning of the New York indie-rock group’s second song of the night – one of Hospice’s most effective pieces, ‘Kettering’ – the room seemed entirely void of the beguilingly dense atmosphere expected at the intimate show of a band that can conjure up such startling emotional power. By the end of ‘Kettering’, as front man Peter Silberman softly wailed serene falsetto with perfect technique against delicate band harmonies, the lights dimmed further, and suddenly that elusive live music magic presented itself within the crowded room, unveiling the hope that the rest of the set would play out in a similar fashion. 

While its perhaps too simplistic of an approach to critique the performance of a group by comparing the number of songs chosen from their two biggest albums on that particular night – and then drawing a conclusion based upon which album the band chose to focus on in relation to which you more prefer – there is something to be said about the correlation between what is missing from The Antler’s most recent release, and what was missing at Magnet Club last week. The set was undoubtedly tight, the musicians were precise and the sound was generally mixed just the way it should be. But as the band bounced merrily through new tracks like ‘No Windows’, ‘Hounds’, ‘Putting The Dog To Sleep’ and ‘I Don’t Want Love’ with smooth pop-rock finesse and small amounts of cheery banter, there was a notable absence of that strangely alluring, raw quivering quality of some of Hospice’s greatest tracks like ‘Wake’ or ‘Bear’ (both noticeably absent from the set). 

The overdone stage performance of a presumably tour-only add-on performer (The Antlers are usually a trio, not a quartet) was a fitting parallel to the clashing of moods occurring. As the unfamiliar guitarist practiced his rocking-out-while-looking-really-into-the-music technique (complete with ridiculous facial expressions and over the top head-banging) his atmosphere-destroying presence hit its peak when he leaped from the stage to titillate the crowd with a guitar solo. Whether this was a gimmick decided upon by the whole group in advance (the expression on Silberman’s face suggested otherwise) or a spontaneous act of ‘passion’ from this ‘slick’ rock’n’roller, it was an acute reminder that The Antler’s new direction is one that will always struggle to surpass the great height reached on the darkly themed and exceptionally complex Hospice. It could also possibly be a direction partly hi-jacked by label executives and a slight loss of creative control that so often comes along with greater popularity and larger amounts of money, or perhaps simply dictated by the pressure to modify the sound to that of your big breakthrough album to avoid repetition.

With a lengthy encore featuring ‘Sylvia’ and aptly finishing with a strong performance of ‘Epilogue’, the group again momentarily tapped into that haunting intensity well within their capability, placing the night’s overall effect somewhere between making newer fans smile and scratching tenderly at the hearts of old devotees with a sweet touch of hurt.