LUSH Radio

Having spoken about returning to the music scene at the beginning of winter last year, the long awaited return of Noah and the Whale saw them releasing album number three; ‘Last Night on Earth’ in the spring of 2011. Stepping away from the solemn and sombre second album, devoted to lead singer, Charlie Fink’s, split with Laura Marling, ‘Last Night on Earth’ promised to shy away from an album of serenity and take us back to the feel good attitude found so predominant in their debut album, ‘Peaceful the World Lays me Down’. It’s arguably quite a big shift between album two and three, although both echoing the vibes of ‘nu-folk’, there’s a startling difference between the ambience of each album.

On October 17th, Leicester’s O2 Academy saw the arrival of the 5 piece English indie-folk group. As the gig began, the lights dimmed and the haunting instrumental of ‘First Days of Spring’ played as the band joined us on stage, at first appearing sombre and a little reserved. To everyone’s surprise, they burst into ‘Shape of my Heart’ lightening the slightly dark ambience they’d previously installed into the audience. Fink greets the audience, oozing an alluring sense of charm and charisma, he informs us all that they’ll be two parts to the gig; one section will be of romance and heartbreak, and the second altogether more hopeful and happy. Inevitably the romance and heartbreak section is clearly centred on the second album, and luckily they play this section first.

Noah and The Whale deliver this half of the gig astoundingly, their on stage personas seem to revert them into stiff, lifeless individuals. It’s captivating. In a breather between two songs, someone screams about how amazing the band are, Fink responds with a simple ‘Thanks’, encouraging laughter from the audience, breaking the sombre mood as the avid fan continues screeching about her love of the band. It’s perhaps a moment well needed as this section of their performance has left a lot of the audience appearing far too intense and motionless to really appreciate the band.
Despite the first section being performed brilliantly, the second section is definitely well needed and arrives just in time. The heartbreak section was perhaps a bit too long winded as the crowd seem unenthusiastic as their feel good section comes into play. Thankfully, after a while they begin to lighten up. Here we see in full action the new album, riddled with nostalgia and hope the striking differences between the second and third album appear crystal clear. While in the first half we’d all been downplayed by one man’s heart break, we are simultaneously bought back up as they perform songs such ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N’ and ‘Five Years Time’ embedded with their self-titled notion of making everyone feel good.

They go on to perform other songs from the current album such as ‘Just Before We Met’ and ultimately finish with ‘Tonight’s The Kind of Night’. It’s the perfect end, in one gig we’ve all gone through the motions with the band, at one point solemnly appreciating the discomfort of a breakup to regaining the knowledge of the possibilities of hope and of life itself echoed in each and every song.

Author

Hannah Brotherton