It's not often that Barclaycard gives you anything for free. Having worked there for 7 years I probably know this better than most. So there was no way I was going to turn down free tickets to the Barclaycard Mercury Music Session that I won on Twitter, even if I didn't know much of the band.
Anyway, The Hospital Club seems to be a relatively exclusive place in Covent Garden that has a club / music venue in the basement. It's much nicer than it sounds. And has a fairly amazing lighting rig. The gig was being filmed for TV (I believe, although no sign yet). Oh, and there was free beer courtesy of Stella :)
The support act for the night was Golden Silvers, who I had heard of in passing but didn't know any of their stuff. I have to say that I was pretty impressed - catchy pop was the genre and it was performed particularly well. They had a random guy playing percussion and vocals called Tommy, who looked the least rock and roll band member since the guitarist of Das Pop but we found out that it was actually the first gig he had done with the band so all was forgiven. The most impressive moment award goes to the last song, which they performed a cappella without a safety net. Respect. They have proven themselves to be a band worthy of consideration and I will purchasing their album.
Endearingly most of the band came out into the audience to watch main act Noah and the Whale. Sadly I have to say that they were something of a disappointment after the energy of Golden Silvers. The only song I knew of NATW was 5 Years Time, which they didn't actually play. Instead we heard material from their new album, The First Days of Spring, which is reasonably morose. Now I have nothing against morose as a theme, but it doesn't really make for a fun evening out. I have to say that I can't really remember most of the songs - maybe you need to be holed up at home whilst feeling slightly depressed for them to make an impact, after which time you would probably put them on repeat and cry into your wine glass about how they are really about your life. Or something. Either way, I was drinking free beer so it made less of an impression.
The band were a strange combination. There was an excellent violinist who also played the keyboard - the stage set up should have really had both pieces of equipment on the same side but instead the poor guy had to race across the front between songs to change stations. Also, he had hair like Erik Hassle, who is my current benchmark for crazy hair.
The lead guitarist looked like he had always wanted to be in a rock band and wasn't going to let the fact that he had somehow ended up in a morose folk outfit prevent him from rocking out like a member of Guns N Roses. The lead singer, in complete contrast, was very serious. At one point he even stopped a song and started again because the audience were talking too much. I can really see how that would be a bit soul destroying but it happens every day to bands of all descriptions in pubs and clubs around the country. Surely the thing to do is play louder and better so that people want to listen? Oh well.
Anyway, I had a nice free evening courtesy of Barclaycard and discovered a new band, but I wasn't inspired into getting the new NATW album any time soon.
The Last Days of Spring is out now
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