Ross Breen
Little xs for Eyes
Gabriel & the Hounds
David C. Clements
Rae Morris
Leaders of Men
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No disrespect to the other artists who were on the bill for this show, but I had not originally come to this showcase to review them. Last Sunday’s show was the first time I’d actually gone to Communion in about six years (shit pun, sorry, but it had to be done), and I’d shown up unaware of the format the gig was going to have. I’d turned up to review Gabriel & the Hounds, but I was so impressed by the quality of music on offer I decided to do the whole thing instead. That band should have been billed as Gabriel & the Hound, though. Yep. Singular. The sole Hound to show up (the other six Hounds were still in the US, apparently) was the drummer. Not that that discouraged Mr. Levine any. The guitar-and-drums setup was a world away from how Kiss Full of Teeth (which, by the way, is excellent) sounds, but even stripped down to their essence, songs like ‘The World Unfolds’, ‘Lovely Thief’ and ‘What Good Would That Do?’ resonated quite powerfully, in a way that connected rather impressively with the crowd, most of, if not all of, whom seemed to be completely uninitiated going into his performance, which certainly was stripped-back, but no less mesmerising. A lot of them came out the other side of it, completely won over. When he gets back here, whenever that may be, and whoever that may be with, somehow I think he’ll be headlining.
He didn’t do so on the night – but strictly speaking, neither did any of the other groups on the bill. The show, billed as a ‘showcase’, gave equal time to each of them – at least, in theory. A half-hour set and a 10-minute changeover for each was a tight schedule, only imposed by the fact that there is usually an 11pm curfew at the Academy. It ended up running over, but that was to be expected as very little elbow room was given. It was still a pretty magical night all told, though – helped by the fact that there was a Pixie in the room. Pixie Delamere, to be precise. She organised the whole thing, and, it has to be said, did a great job. Her resemblance to a certain Disney character, combined with her first name, led to me nicknaming her – I’m sure you can guess what I went with.
There were some factors outside her control, however – the gig was on a Sunday night, and in a 270-capacity venue, just over a third of that number of people seemed to be in attendance by the show’s close, and the arrival of the spirited, shoegaze-indebted Leaders of Men (including a certain Mr. Fionn Regan). Aside from that, things went rather swimmingly, and by the time the last act got going, most of the room had been converted – those who had previously been unaware of their wares, that is, including yours truly. We were warned that LoM’s set was ‘gonna be loud’, and it certainly was. The set was a mixture of old and new – ‘Up Against the Wall’ and ‘Bite Your Tongue’ rubbed shoulders with new cuts like the excellent ‘The War on Conversation’. Their name may be grandiose, but the quintet have the tunes to back it up.
The night started with the arrival of one man and his guitar. Well, his guitar and his loop station, that is. The blues-influenced stylings of curtain-raiser Ross Breen went down very well indeed, his intricate songs providing an enthralling start to proceedings, and hinting at the quality of the music that was to come – after all, when standards are set in such an emphatic fashion as Breen did last Sunday, you just know what’s to come is going to have to raise its game. It did. A tough act to follow by any margin, Breen set up Little xs for Eyes brilliantly.
The sextet were one of the more upbeat offerings of the night, opening things with a hair-raising acapella version of ‘Summer Never Comes’, before the full-band came crashing in and led us through a half-hour set that was spellbinding. Gleeful indie-pop numbers like current single ‘In Three Years’ and the euphoric ‘In the Light’, not to mention a cover of Mike Oldfield’s ‘Moonlight Shadow’ were a joy to behold, proving that the band are far from ‘S.A.D.’ (That is the title of their debut album, by the way, in case you didn’t catch the reference.)
On this most enchanted of evenings, we were also treated to the stirring piano-led beauty of Rae Morris‘s set. The Blackpool native creates music that sounds like something Lana Del Rey would be proud to call her own if she could actually sing without a ton of reverb and did away with melodramatic production flourishes. Songs like ‘Hard to Forget’ (which features one of the most gorgeous melodies I’ve heard in ages) are exactly that, but the only drawback to her performance was that she came off a little shy. This was endearing, though, and her music was entirely more confident, so I reckon she’s got a bright future ahead of her, and even better songs to write.
She was sandwiched in between the aforementioned Leaders of Men and David C. Clements (and band). The latter presented us with stirring folk-rock anthems-in-the-making surprisingly coming away with the accolade of ‘the second loudest band of the night’ with songs like ‘On the Border’ and ‘The Longest Day in History’, not to mention a jaw-dropping rendition of ‘Flow River’ that ended with tumultuous applause. Amongst the ethereal beauty and moonlight shadows that had already visited us, their work created a haunting atmosphere all its own, lingering long in the memory after the band left the stage.
Musically speaking, I couldn’t have asked for a better night. Plans have a habit of going awry, so I wasn’t particularly surprised that the last band ran over, but this gig was worth every moment. All it took was faith and trust; and oh yes, something we made sure not to forget: a little bit of Pixie dust.
Gabriel and the Hounds’s Kiss Full of Teeth is out next week on Communion; Little xs for Eyes’s S.A.D. is available to stream on Bandcamp; likewise with Ross Breen’s When I Met the Devil.
