Chapel Club - Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, 4/6/2013

  by Tony Gaughan

published: 25 / 5 / 2013

intro

Tony Gaughan at the Glasgow School of Art watches London five-piece Chapel Club play a captivating and technically brilliant show to promote their new album 'Good Together', which find them abandoning their indie pop tag and moving into electronica

Chapel Club's return to Glasgow was to a somewhat compact Art School. My first thoughts were get along early as it could be a busy one. I also wanted to check out the local support act Luca -a very wise move as the four piece produced a mean and moody set which Joy Division or Editors would have been proud of. These kids, especially with tracks as strong as their closer 'Anything' - which lead to an impressed Chapel Club' front man Lewis Bowman bigging them up - are clearly ones too watch. Once the darlings of the indie press, London five-piece Chapel Club have had a genre and direction change, and have moved from their much acclaimed indie pop tag to what they now describe as 'synth pop'. This may conjure up the impression that the band were reliant on samples or gadgetry. Certainly their array of keyboards and laptops threatened to take over the venue let alone the stage, but in essence it was a captivating and highly technical display of brilliance. With the new album 'Good Together', released the day before on the Ignition imprint label owned by Oasis ex-management company employee Lewis, they launched into 'Scared' and new track 'Wordy'. It was fairly obvious that this directional change with a definitive 80's vibe that was reminiscent of China Crisis and some of the darker 80's indie bands was impressing the locals. 'Shy', 'Fruit Machine' and the brilliant oldie 'Eastern Girls' showed the band have indeed hit new heights. The songs were layered and complex with double rich vocals, and the set went down a storm. The constant swap overs from synth/keyboards to guitars from Michael Hibbert and Alex Parry kept the band's edge, and the power rhythm section of Liam Arklie and drummer Rich Mitchell meant a sweaty night for all concerned. The band closed with a 10 minute version of 'Good Together'.

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