I Am Kloot - Academy 3, Manchester, 14/2/2010

  by Dixie Ernill

published: 13 / 2 / 2010

intro

At an intimate sold-out show on Valentine's Day night, Dixie Ernill watches local indie rockers I Am Kloot play a stunning and faultless set at the Academy 3 in Manchester

Spending Valentine’s Night standing for two hours in the company of three blokes is not most people’s idea of romance, but not only have my trusty partner and I turned our back on the whole candle lit dinner bollocks, but so have scores of others in the intimate sold-out Manchester Academy 3. Whilst not the big draw they should be throughout this land and beyond, I Am Kloot never fail to draw a crowd in their home City and despite it only being a few months since they played four consecutive nights at Manchester’s Deaf Institute, tonight is no exception. With four long players already forming a stunning back catalogue and one new one ready to drop in May, I Am Kloot have an enviable array of songs to choose from and even delivering a mammoth and near faultless 30 strong set, there is still no room for such classics as 'Even the Stars Look Familiar', 'Ferris Wheel' and 'Glimmer' that would form the cornerstones of any other band’s set. With singer/guitarist John Bramwell at his witty best the between song banter is worth the admission fee alone, but even this enjoyable facet is not a patch on a canon of songs delivered with the perfect backing of bass player Pete Jobson and drummer Andy Hargreaves, who are certainly not here just to make up the numbers. Kicking off with 'Northern Sky', which will surely be the centre piece of the forthcoming 'Sky at Night' LP. It’s the kind of song that hits home immediately and makes the work of Neil Diamond redundant in an instance. 'From Your Favourite Sky' and 'Morning Rain' are present and correct before another newie in the shape of 'The Brink' suggests that the new LP could possibly be the one that finally breaks the band to the wider audience they deserve. The classics just keeping on coming with 'Titanic' and '86 TVs', from the band’s first two singles, sounding as fresh now as they did over ten years ago. There is a mid-set break for Pete and Andy as John tackles another touching new track 'I Still Do', a beautiful 'Astray' and typically honest 'At the Sea' with just a guitar for company. The full band are re-united for the remainder of the set with 'The Runaways' and 'Over My Shoulder' proving to be real crowd pleasers before the slower couplet of 'Because' and 'I Believe' also going down well. Final track 'Proof' is sung back by the audience and is a great way to draw the set to a close. The encore of 'To You' has the amusing sight of the 6ft 3 'Honey Monster’-like Guy Garvey from Elbow dueting on the same mic with the 5ft 5 John, but amazingly the power of the song is not lost. An inspired 'Same Deep Water ss Me' brings proceedings to an end. I Am Kloot may not represent romance in the traditional sense, but their songs eek out the romance in the everyday ordinariness of life better than any others since the early days of the Smiths and for that reason we should cherish them far more than a dozen red roses and a cheesy card once a year.

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