Weekly > Reviews
Midlake - The Musician - Leicester
Well this is my first gig of 2010, and frankly there seems little point in going to anymore this year, I doubt very much that this gig will be surpassed, it was perfect.
The Musician is a tiny oasis of tiny venue sanity in a sea of mega arenas and multi seating cowsheds with atmosphere free vertigo inducing tiered seating. It’s situated in the middle of town, down a dodgy looking back alley, it has a cheesy painted violet facade and is inhabited by people who really really really like live music. The capacity I guess is only about 150, the walls are plastered with grainy photos and tour posters, the beer is cheap and nobody wants to kick the shit out of you. Next time you are in Leicester go there, you wont be disapointed.
Anyway there was a band on.
Midlake have been on the edge of my radar for some time, but i’ve never investigated them, how stupid am I? They are the greatest band in the universe this week and probably next week as well.
Got to the front with no difficulty, a young girl came on unannounced, I believe she was called Sarah Jaffe, she sings and plays guitar and was joined by a tall guy in glasses on additional guitar, and the keyboard player fom Midlake, she did a bunch of engaging songs with great lyrics, sung in a very distinctive style, she was cute, I think we might hear more from her, I hope so.
With very little fuss Midlake take the stage for the second time this evening, as there was an earlier show at 6pm but that’s not very rock ‘n’ roll so we went to the 9.30 show, the stage got very crowded very quickly, I counted seven guys on stage, there might have been more, it was difficult to see because of the amount of facial hair on show, it must be said that beards appear to be very popular at the moment! The words Bee Gees and ZZ Top came to mind. Has anyone seen the film ‘Deliverance’ ? These guys could have been extras.
They launch into a beefed up version of ‘Winter Dies’ and phew! these cowboys really cooked, the musicianship was a pleasure to witness and there was a musical alchemy going on here that took your breath away.
Tim Smith is the main vocalist, he has a charismatic and rivetting style of delivery, it’s hard to take your eyes off him and he appears to take it all very seriously and exudes an air of ‘this is my band, dont fuck up’ as he glares at his band and there seemed to be some tension between him and his keyboardist, it all added to the atmosphere.
- Midlake
- The Musician - Leicester (23rd January 2010)
- Category: Live
- Label: Bella Union
- Support: Sarah Jaffe
- Reviewed by: john haylock
- Published on: 25 Jan 2010
- Photography by: Arthur Hughes
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favouritesThey gave us the whole of the fantastic new album ‘The Courage Of Others’ and dropped in 7 tracks from their previous album ‘The Trials Of Von Occupanther’...18 songs and not one dud amongst them. I especially loved ‘Core Of Nature’, the new title track and ‘Bring Down’.
Their songs are so deep and riven with sadness that you wonder why you still listen to The Smiths. I hear all manner of musical echoes …like early REM, Fleet Foxes, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, this is stuff that touches a strange nerve. Over 2 hours of genuinely life changing music.
Midlake are special, believe the hype, crawl over broken glass to see them.
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