Blimey. Club Academy last September and now the quadruple sized Manchester Academy? It sure has been going great for the London indie four-piece. With debut album I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose making a decent dent in the charts and having presence on most radio playlists, the band did give us a warning of the things they had in store for us.

Single support act Jon Quil, think Kids in Glass Houses meet Scouting for Girls with some Vampire Weekend thrown into the mix, show keen interest in demonstrating to the capacity packed crowd what they’re made of. But a lack of depth in the sound mix took an already slightly repetitive sounding four piece that bit further down the rabbit hole then what I imagined was planned.

Overall some pleasant sounds but I’m not sure whether it’s the size of the venue or the music itself that make me feel a bit lost.

Kicking off with personal favourite Evening/Morning, an excellent choice as a set-opener I must say, the lads crash the crowd with joyous noise. Or so they would have, had it not been for the (continued) incredibly poor sound mix. But let’s not linger over this too long; I think I’ve made my point. Los Campesinos-esque riff track Open House, followed up by Dust on the Ground, really gets the crowd going and is a testament to why the band have managed to move so far up in Manchester. It’s incredible that the band introduce three new tracks as their debut album has only just taken them onto their first major headline tour, but from the looks and sounds of things we can expect a decent sophomore effort.

Crowd pleaser Magnet is the highlight in a fairly quiet mid section before arriving at the pre-encore finale and hit single Always like this. Especially when Thom York-reminiscent front man (name) announces that there are more people present at this Manchester gig then at the London leg of the tour, the crowd shows its appreciation.

Whilst going down a treat (it still is an incredible bass line), I noticed that the sound of the band is actually pitch perfect and identical to the studio recording. Considering the spotlight the band have been put in, it’s quite impressive that they don’t give the impression to be under enormous pressure. Thankfully, by encore time it seems the sound engineer had been replaced with a more adequate noise enthusiast and with set-closer Emergency Contraception Blues the band finish on a high. And looking at the deserting crowd, do come back soon. We like you.

Setlist:

Evening/morning

Lamplight

Bad Timing

Open House

Dust on the ground

Ode to Lucy

Cancel on me

Autumn

Magnet

Beg

How can you swallow so much sleep?

Always like this

What if

Encore:

The Hill

The Giantess

Emergency Contraception Blues

Words: Alex Dorweiler