Having sold out a few months in advance, this was always going to be a busy one. A much younger crowd than expected crammed into Concorde2 including the little urchin who new every word to all the songs played… bless him.
Liverpool band Outfit provided support. They sound questionable on their recordings but were entertaining live with the vocalist snake hipping around playing keys like an edgy Shoreditch version of Axl Rose. Their single ‘Two Islands’ is worth a listen and they provide a good prelude to Everything Everything.
After being nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2011, tonight’s headliners have been fairly quiet. Having just released their new album ‘Arc’ they have a good catalogue of material to play. The new album shows how their sound has evolved, but the real change is in the lyrics – they are less sixth-form beat poetry fragments and more like wittier comments on life.
Starting off with ‘Undrowned’ they blaze through a mix of songs from both albums, ‘Kemosabe’ getting a huge cheer from the crowd. The band’s sound is a melting pot of styles – you can hear equal parts Bloc Party, funk music and Beatles all with an angular slant. In terms of delivery, mannerisms and at times even tone, frontman Jonathan Higgs also echoes Future Islands’ singer Samuel T. Herring.
With guitarist Alex Robertshaw lip curling like Elvis, the palm muted guitar and bass interplay was great – on some tracks it reminded us of Flea and John Frusciante with a little less funk. It can be hard to do electronic music without it feeling that it’s all backing track but Everything Everything manage to pull it together. Could be that the hidden keyboardist was propping things up. Nevertheless, the frequent three-part harmonies sounded great – overall vocals were tight and Higgs was engaging as a frontman. Bassist/keyboardist Jeremy Pritchard’s voice was a hidden gem too.
The band played through ‘Don’t Try’, ‘Torso Of The Week’, ‘My Kz, Ur Bf’ and ‘Final Form’ without much in the way of banter. Although Higgs was surprised to hear so many people singing along with such a new album – might be that it was leaked about a month early…
This doesn’t happen often but the set was perfectly balanced in terms of pacing and variety. ‘Cough Cough’ provided a great end to an excellent gig – see them on this tour if you get a chance.
Concorde2, Thursday 7th February 2013
Words and photos by Dan Griffiths
