Noah and the Whale @ Birmingham Academy, 14th October 2011
The Academy was full to brim with an audience of all ages, from pubs in Twickenham to commercial success with hits “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N” and “Five Years’ Time” Noah and the Whale have been on a long beautiful journey over the past few years.
Charlie Fink appeared on stage with his smooth monotonous vocals and 60’s styled band and blew the crowd away. With new material from recently successful album “Last Night On Earth” to “First Days Of Spring” there was not a still foot in sight, the elderly members of the crowd nodded their heads in approval as the University Fresher’s jigged around with a jug of Guinness in hand.
The support slot was given to “Bahamas” two backing singers, a Toronto clean cut singer and a drummer. The singer boasts lots of confidence and isn’t shy to heckle with the dim-witted members of the audience. The highlight was “Whole Wide World” which they performed well and received a worthy applause.
Noah and the Whale graced Birmingham with their withdrawn “romantic section” of the set and nearing the end “lively section” and further encored with two heartfelt numbers which appeared to be from the loving side of the set list. Basically the romantic section was the album that didn’t do well commercially “First Days of Spring” and the “enjoyable” section were hits from the new album “Last Night on Earth” that unsurprisingly had found its spot within the music scene worldwide. However every song was well received lively or not as Fink’s voice sooths all. I do believe that they were missing a vital member of the line-up however as Laura Marling (famous for the backing vocals in five years’ time) left the group in 2008.
Tonight wasn’t the kind of night to stay on stage for another hour as they performed for just under an hour. The set list was way too mellow for my liking as not enough lively songs were included in there.
Nevertheless Noah and the Whale showed that their not all about the one hit wonders, with numerous hits on their new album. Their music appeals to all as you could see by the liveliness of the crowd. Every song Charlie sang was pitch perfect and the group come into their own on stage like most folk bands. Just next time (and there will be a next time) Charlie mix the songs up a little.
Review – John Kirby
Photos – John Bentley