Monday 5th November 2012
With their single ‘Celestine’ up there in my favourite songs of the year, if not my absolute favourite, it would be natural for me to check out London indie-rock band in my birth town of York at the Duchess, a former snooker hall that was repurposed as a small band venue, above the equally small and intimate band venue of Fibbers, a venue which has wrestled back a lot of the big names from the Duchess in recent years but not, it seems, Spector.
The band were supported by two acts, neither of which decided to announce who they were during the set, or at least as far as I heard. I can’t deny it’s refreshing, in a day and age when bands constantly plug their MySpace page or Twitter account during their set, but equally it would seem to be a mistake in this always connected age, when the crowd was filled with people interacting with their smart phones, not to plug their contact details. Hell, the crowd itself was made up mostly of teenagers so why not give them your details? Or, you know, at least your name.
The first support, which I believe was ‘Splash’ from reading the set times but I’m not sure as, in a twist of even further confusion the other support was the similarly water themed ‘Swim Deep’ and thus their names got confused in my head, were the better of the two warm up groups. A four piece with members that looked like Hanson were back, they did have some memorable riffs and lyrics, aided by their simplicity, and though they didn’t blow me away many of their tunes stood out and stuck with me as their notes died away. However, the lyrics were difficult to make out due to, firstly their infamiliarity, but also from the muffled sound mix, something that following band ‘Swim Deep’ made their party piece, spending a good few minutes at the start of their set complaining, perhaps not unfairly, about not getting sound in their monitors before getting into their songs. It may well have been in vain as the vocals of the second band were equally lost and they didn’t have the memorable and interesting riffs of the first band to fall back on. Heavier musically but less exciting, I’m afraid to say I lost interest and went for a sit down on the sofas, either a sign of me getting on a little as I hit my mid-twenties or maybe just I can’t be bothered with less exciting supports.
After a thirty minute wait we would get the main act, Spector, delivering us the twelve songs from their debut album ‘Enjoy It While It Lasts’ but in a different order. Coming onto a toe-tapping instrumental of the ‘Doctorin’ The TARDIS’ song the five-piece burst into a spirited version of ‘Twenty Nothing’ that both sounded like a great rendition of the song but also adding an extra element to it. Lead singer Frederick Macpherson proved himself on the night to be the perfect front man with enough personality to carry the songs, aided by a crowd obviously well familiar with their material, enough to sing it back. Even hitting himself in the mouth with the microphone during the opening number and having to dab his lips with a towel during the next two songs ‘Upset Boulevard’, complete with the sudden powerful opening, and ‘Grey Shirt and Tie’ with more life added to the sombre original and even including the stuttering guitar element, became part of the banter.
The one-hour long set continued with the album tracks with the much promised opener ‘True Love (For Now)’ appearing fourth after the lead singer repeatedly promised it in either a witty bit of stage banter or a genuine forgetting of their set list, a great track on the album and even better live. They then continued to rattle through the tracks, from ‘No Adventure’, my favourite track of the night with its encouraged sing-a-long section from the lead singer in a fun call-and-response set-up, to ‘Friday Night, Don’t Ever Let It End’, the latter particularly setting the venue alight, with only the annoyance of two middle-aged men in the crowd seemingly trying to re-live their youth but actually coming across as old, drunken arses.
‘What You Wanted’, with its sing along elements, led to my favourite recorded song ‘Celestine’ which was massively received as expected and cemented Spector as skilled musicians able to bring the recorded track to a live environment successfully. ‘Lay Low’ and the faster paced ‘Chevy Thunder’ were equally well received and it was second main single and album closer ‘Never Fade Away’ that brought the gig to a close, sung for a long time by the crowd before the band started and really ended the gig on a high.
Though we got all twelve tracks of the album the lack of an encore or maybe one unfamiliar track was a shame but Spector proved, especially in the wake of less experienced support acts, that they deserved the crowd’s rapturous welcome and the BBC Sound of 2012 nomination. Though it could be argued, like on the album, that some of their songs do blend together into a familiar sound, the live versions were powerful, engaging and a joy to hear and the banter from their lead man glued the tracks together, even if the rest of the band didn’t quite forge their own personalities.
One of the strongest gigs I’ve seen this year I look forward to following the band as they progress through their career and build on this promising first album tour.
(7.5/10)
0 comments:
Post a Comment