LUSH Radio

After having been away from the live gigging scene for a year, you might have expected the first night of Slow Club’s tour promoting sophomore album “Paradise” to be somewhat shambolic. And to an extent, you might be correct; but any bumps on the way to a rapturous finale just add to Slow Club’s charm.

Main support Sweet Baboo is a simple man + guitar set up, but what he lacks in bandmates he makes up with candidness and humour: “Now this song isn’t about a girl…it’s about a mermaid”. Baboo captivates the audience with his lyrical dexterity and beautifully constructed chord progressions, ensuring that even despite have to pause mid-song towards the end of his set, the crowd cheers him on regardless.

After the stripped down nature of Sweet Baboo, when the normally two piece Slow Club take to the stage with not only a bassist but additional drummer, the contrast is stark – the band launches straight into new album title track and closer; “Paradise” is performed in darkness, with the stage lights coming slowly up, until they launch into current single “Where I’m Waking”.

The incredible wall of sound created by the four people on stage is barely believable, and Charles and Rebbeca’s joy de vivre is only surpassed by their perfect harmonies. Rebecca’s voice in particular soars beautifully, full of sincerity and energy. “We’ve been practising for five hours a day for the last 5 months…we’ve been desperately trying to learn all the songs off the new album so we’re going to play them all!”, her Yorkshire accent forming a lilting contrast to her vocals.

The band almost seem to be too accomplished technically for a venue without a barrier, where the band can easily overhear any audience conversation between songs (Rebecca’s Twitter proving that the Bodega is quite literally “the toilet circuit” http://yfrog.com/kfnv6vfj), but their responses to any background noise make the Slow Club experience special, with the band telling off audience members off for talking like naughty school children.

True to their word, all 10 tracks of Paradise feature on the night, along with sections of tracks off the first album, Rebecca begging the audience to sing along so she can feel like Kings Of Leon. The songs are universally well received by the crowd, with the stripped down first albums songs, particularly “It Doesn’t Always Have To Be Beautiful, Unless It’s Beautiful” getting particularly positive receptions.

As the band announce they have 3 songs left, something seems to break in them and they begin to struggle to not break into laughter during songs. During “You, Earth Or Ash”, Rebecca’s sincere heartbreak song, she struggles not to corpse, and during penultimate song “Hackney Marsh”, the entire band repeatedly have to stop and start. With many other bands, this would undermine the entire show, with Slow Club; it somehow gives the whole performance a more personal feel, and makes the band more human.

After a swift recovery, Slow Club hit the home straight when they play their initial set closer, and lead single from the album, “Two Cousins”. The perfect delivery fills the room with a certain kind of joy, and the band depart and duly return to the stage for an encore or “Gold Mountain”, and their indie super-hit “Giving Up On Love”. The crowd go suitably wild, the band basking in the low-level Kings Of Leon-esque singalong –  the clear irony being that Slow Club are not only miles ahead of the brothers Followill in pure talent, but their ability to not take themselves too seriously marks their live performances out as something truly worth seeking out.

Hannah Walton has been grilling Charles from the band.

Author

Hannah Walton