Noah and The Whale: Manchester Cathedral, 3rd July

When Noah and The Whale announced they'd be playing just 2 UK dates this summer I was ecstatic to find one of them was at Manchester Cathedral.  I'm a long time fan, right from Peaceful The World Lays Me  Down, and First Days of Spring merely left me more enamoured with them. 

Nice view of the sound man too

Noah & The Whale took to Manchester Cathedral's makeshift stage surrounded by ramparts made from pews and flight cases.  Bursting into their set with a run of songs from their last album First Days of Spring including Blue Skies, Slow Glass & Love of An Orchestra.  The songs sombre yet uplifting feel matched the environment of Manchester's Cathedral perfectly and as the set gathered momentum the crowd shuffled and packed together in an attempt to get a better view and as close to the stage as they could.  There's a reason purpose built theatres don't have great stone pillars, because you can't see through them.  Some gave up and were happy enough to get a fleeting glimpse between heads now and then and just enjoy the vibe that NATW were creating.  Others, like me, shifted around the edge of the crowd for a better view, in the end I got a decent view from the right of the stage.

A powerful version of Give A Little Love (my favourite NATW song) and a set mixing the deeply personal newer songs with the catchy less serious earlier songs made for a great dynamic.

The gig was great and the Cathedral was packed, probably more people than it sees on a Sunday that's for sure, maybe they should offer great live music and a bar for services? 

They rounded out their set with a powerful encore of my favourite from the latest album My Door Is Always Open and 5 Years Time from their debut and ended the night with a new song L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N maybe Charlie's broken heart is mending?

Setlist:

Blue Skies
Give A Little Love
Slow Glass
Love of An Orchestra
Our Window
I Have Nothing

My Broken Heart
Jocasta
Mary
Stranger
Two Atoms
Shape of My Heart
Rocks And Daggers
The First Days of Spring

My Door Is Always Open
5 Years Time
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N

Seth Lakeman at the Liverpool Urban Centre, 7/4/10

When I was asked if I’d like to review Seth Lakeman’s gig at the Liverpool Contemporary Arts Centre I jumped at the chance, having heard of the Mercury Prize nominated Folk Singer, but never getting the chance to listen his music I was interested to finally hear him.  I hadn’t heard his music before so I checked out his albums before the show, I’d like to be able to say I was impressed.  Even more so I’d like to be able to say my opinion was changed by his performance.  But I can’t.  When listening to his albums it struck me that something was missing.  I couldn’t put my finger on it.  But having stood just 5 feet from him during his set I realised what it was that was missing.  While he played a confident set with varied material I felt throughout the set that there was a spark missing that let the songs down.

Guy infront of me at the gig in a stupid hat.

The evening began with support acts that were comfortably similar to the headliners style  with The Kevin Critchley Outfit playing in a similar vein to Lakeman’s own brand of slightly rocky English folk.  They opened with an energetic set, with songs from their debut album Scars. With a depleted band, just guitar, violin & cello instead of their normal 5 piece the KCO performed a confident set, engaging and joking with the crowd between songs. They were followed by Dan Donnelly who played a solo set accompanied only by his loop pedal, which he used to create his own backing using the body of his guitar for percussion and layering several guitar parts up to create songs like ‘Cigarette’ and ‘Diamonds in the Road’.

I went for a sit down at the back half way through

Lakeman’s set began with a track, ‘The Hurlers’, from his current album Poor Man's Heaven.  He then announced that he was releasing his next album Hearts and Minds on June 14th before playing the title track. He played several more new tracks during the rest of the evening.  Throughout his set Lakeman switched between violin and guitar and while I felt he lacked a certain spark of conviction in his voice his fiddle playing made up for this. He was ably supported by his band and while his particular brand of contemporary English folk may not be my cup of tea, I can easily appreciate its appeal to so many of his fans.  His songs are well crafted and he and his band played a dynamic set, changing the tempo of the evening several times, slowing the mood right down only to bring things to a peak announcing ‘I hope you don’t mind another hoedown’ and ending the set with ‘Poor Man’s Heaven’ before returning for an encore with an up tempo ‘Race To Be King’.
While Seth Lakeman might not be to my taste he was certainly interesting to watch live and he kept his audience’s captivated throughout.

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This review was written for liverpoolacoustic.co.uk