Noah and the Whale managed to turn the Leeds O2 into a cosy, personal place for one evening; the kind of gig you’d want to hug. Their presence enveloped the stage, audience and support act from the moment they appeared, jumping straight into “Give a Little Love” which mesmerized the crowd as the fully suited, waistcoat wearing and charisma oozing Charlie Fink and Tom Hobden, a perfectly matched pair of front men, pranced around. However the bassist, Matt Owens, embroidered waistcoat aside, felt misplaced. Without the indie curls that define the rest of the band, his long hair and box-step dancing is at complete odds with the ethereal power of the music.
Poor Matt Owens. He is lost amidst the screams Charlie Fink elicits from the crowd; promising in a rash moment of abstraction, a “three course meal of a concert.” As the closing chords of the first batch of songs ring, the audience can understand what he means. The main course is a steaming plate of quasi-romantic pieces, which everybody devours ravenously, singing along with a jumble of words from mismatched verses. Suddenly a switch from spotlights towards block lighting for “Our Window”; the translucent dark making the singer seems momentarily more human, less indie and elfin. Just as I’m wondering how hard it would be to fight to the bar, “Tonight’s the Kind of Night” begins and the I am drawn back in to my meal with renewed energy.
When “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.” dies away amidst heavy roar of bass and the band making their way off stage, the audience is still hungry for their dessert and begin a few chants, getting the band back for two more tasty treats. The encore, “The First Days of Spring” was sheer brilliance and closed into a painful silence. They come to York soon. You should go and see them.