Where: Palace Theatre
Why: I couldn’t live without them
Why: I couldn’t live without them
The front of the Palace Theatre proclaims Noah and the Whale to be “An evening of pure joy!” and “Wall to wall pleasure!” and although these reviews technically refer to ‘Singin in the Rain’ which is showing there during the rest of the week, they are equally applicable to the evening I spent in their comfy seating and civilised atmosphere with some velvet-clad boys producing some of my favourite music ever.
The band have said in an interview that performing to a
seated audience was like doing a Q&A rather than a gig, which I get, but by
the end they’d reminded us that we were at a “seating optional” event and
everyone leapt up and those in the stalls swarmed to the front. I say
“everyone” leapt up, but the couples on either side of me stayed resolutely
seated throughout the whole final two songs and encore, so I looked a bit like
a lone seaweed swaying on the shore, but I wasn’t going to be sat down as one
of my favourite bands of all time played their faces off. That’s just not
right. (And yes… I was there on my own. Whevs).
They played a “stripped-back” set for the first half hour,
which I think for them basically meant no funky lighting, as in all other
aspects it was the same as later on – how stripped back can you be with four
extra violinists and a disco ball? But it was beautiful and they ended on
‘First days of spring’, which is a total stunner and caused one of the bouncy
teens sitting in the box opposite to yell “That’s the best song ever!!” at the
end.
Then we were treated to a half-hour film (see an intro to
it here) made by the band and directed by Charlie (lead singer), featuring as
its soundtrack all the songs from the new album, ‘Heart of Nowhere’. The story
was roughly to do with an alternate future reality where all teenagers have to
be transported to an island to be checked over and to see if they’re suitable
to re-enter society as an adult, and usually end up having all their memories
wiped. What follows is three teenage boys breaking free of the line into the
island to play one more gig and have one more night recording their memories
and favourite colours into a tape player, and generally emoting in dark
environments. Despite being a bit hipster and earnest, the boys were really
passionate and acted well, and the music worked so beautifully with the film
that it was quite gripping. Plus some of the accents were hilarious.
After the interval (LOVE an interval – crack out the gin in
a tin) we got a full set from the boys featuring mostly the newest album and
some of their more recent stuff. The only song from their first album was the
inescapable ‘5 years time’, and I did miss some of their earlier songs (‘Rocks
and daggers’ is one of my favourite songs of all time) but the new stuff suited
the atmosphere of the evening and it was great to hear it live (always helps me
get into a band’s new music, and I’d been struggling with their new album a bit
– I love it now). We also got to see Anna Calvi perform ‘Heart of Nowhere’,
which was great – her voice is mad powerful. They were brilliant though and
having such a good view I really got to appreciate how musically talented they
all are, seeing them all swap around instruments and vocals, and particularly
Matt and Fred’s electric guitar duel which was insane.
Noah and the Whale are one of those bands I’d go and see
again and again until the end of time (this was number 4 I think), because I just
LOVE them and their music means so much to me (I listened to ‘First days of
spring’ every single morning for over a year). They are hilariously mournful
and nostalgic for guys who are the same age as me, but who can complain? I used
to think there was no such thing as ‘too mournful’ in music, and still sort of
do, but bear with until my upcoming Lana Del Rey review…
Brixpig x
