Noah and the Whale
Where: Koko, London
When: 2nd October 2009
At Koko tonight there were 2 bands playing, and that bears no reference to the intoxicating powerhouse of a baritone support act, Sean Rowe. Whereas some bands have slow songs and fast songs, happy songs and sad songs, quiet songs and loud songs, and still in effect are just the one band, Noah and the Whale are 2 bands. Pre-Laura-Marling-Break-Up-Noah-And-The-Whale and Post-Laura-Marling-Break-Up-Noah-And-The-Whale. Having been totally seduced by their highly rated new album, The First Days Of Spring, I only really came along to see the latter. Most of the crowd were there for the former. Pre-L-M-B-U-N-A-T-W are a strange beast. They are a slightly unsettling mix of borderline cheesy folk-pop complimented by beefy sounding tunes with a noticeable songwriting depth. And so much of the gig consisted of crowd-pleasing numbers from album one, with a few singalong moments. Unfortunately, that meant that we weren’t really seeing the new, mature, staggeringly wounded Charlie Fink (there is no Noah in this whale) baring his soul in the atmosphere the songs from the new album demanded. In fact, it turned out that most of his between-song banter involved attempting to silence the rubble of voices that invaded upon the nakedness of his painful confessionals.
What matters though, is the quality of the music, and the way it was played. This was unmistakably top notch. They sounded tight, and the twee-ness that comes across on record at times was masked in the live setting by a powerful sound that had echoes of both The Velvet Underground and even The Editors. These may sound like very unlikely comparisons, but even in the happier, poppier songs, there is a darkness now to Noah and The Whale that has really pushed them up a level. Charlie’s deep, cracked, guttural voice really adds to this effect. The violin either added a rustic, folky twinge to make their sound distinctive or it helped conjure the epic atmosphere in songs such as the magnificent “First Days Of Spring.”
They saved big hit “5 Years Time” (a duet with the absent Laura Marling originally) for the encore and transformed it from something jolly and summery, with optimistic hope for the future of their relationship, into something slightly more sinister, by replacing the whistling with haunting violin plucking. But they made sure, reassuringly, that no-one would leave the gig skipping away with this song still ringing freshly in their heads, by finishing with “My Broken Heart,” (in which the line “you can’t break my broken heart” epitomises the lyrical tone of the new Noah And The Whale). Here, a tender, bleak vocal accompanied by quiet, menacing guitars exploded into walls of sound and post-rock feedback Mogwai would have been proud of, and they asserted that this is the real way to end a gig.
With all their equipment stolen 3 nights before in Manchester, there nearly was no gig, and this certainly seemed to have shaken up the band to produce a poignant, neurotic, triumphant and memorable night. They reaffirmed that with or without Laura Marling for themselves, the messy love triangles in the new London folk scene are sure making for great music.
Words: Stephen Paul
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