Chapel Club - St Phillips Church, Salford, 9/12/2010

  by Dixie Ernill

published: 4 / 12 / 2010

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Article

A church in the North of England is perhaps an odd choice for Chapel Club's final live outing of the year, but from the moment that they open with a stunning semi-acoustic reading of current single 'All the Eastern Girls' it kind of makes sense. Singer Lewis Bowman defies his slender jockey-like frame to deliver a rich vocal performance that nods at both a warmer Ian McCulloch and sixties crooner Matt Munro and just seems completely right in the band's religious surroundings. After another couple of semi-acoustic songs including the excellent '"Five Trees', the band crank things up a few notches by going electric for powerful renditions of early singles 'Surfacing' and the Morrissey-esque 'O Maybe I' during which Bowman forgets where he is by not changing the line "...fuck somebody's wife". He quickly regains his composure and, following the fine 'Bodies', tries to redress the balance by serving up 'Widows', the hymnal highlight of their current EP. Clocking in at nearly eight minutes it is reminiscent of Pale Saints in their more swoon-some moments. 'Paper Thin' from their forthcoming album is musically similar to the Smiths, which is ironically played just before the band unveil a faithful cover of Wham's 'Last Christmas'. As it's Christmas and as it sounds pretty good we can forgive them....but just this once. A full blown electric version of 'All the Eastern Girls' has the seated congregation clapping along in the pews before the wonderfully cinematic 'The Shore' closes an enjoyable set to very much deserved applause. Sadly no encore, but still a great gig and next year, when the albums out, Chapel Club will advance to the big league leaving the likes of White Lies and Editors in the slipstream.

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