Nestled in-between the endless Manchester University buildings along Oxford Road sits The Deaf Institute, renamed from its original purpose as an institute of learning for the local deaf and dumb. It is a 3 storey building comprising of a couple of bars, one serving food, and a relatively small music venue at the top, holding around 400 punters.
First up tonight is London outfit My Sad Captains who have their third album ‘Best of Times’ to promote. The band quietly takes their place on the stage and launch into new track ‘All Times Into One’ from Best of Times. Only about half the capacity is in front of the stage for their 6 song set, with 4 of them coming from the new album, however each song brings a growing intensity to the atmosphere and the crowd were appreciative at the end. MSC have this quietly melodic melancholy to their music and are improving with each album, and they certainly deserve a larger audience than this.
Shearwater take the stage just before 9.30, but without iconic drummer Thor (busy touring with Swans at the moment) and the atmosphere ramps up a significant notch. Focus is all on the extraordinary voice of Jonathan Meiburg (still my favourite rock star ornithologist) as they kick off with ‘Hidden Lakes’ from The Golden Archipelago album of 2010.
As a genuine nature lover, the next couple of songs are from last original studio album ‘Animal Joy’ before following with ‘Rooks’ from the album ‘Rook’. JM takes time out now to adjust his overdrive setting on his amp as he was threatening to "reduce the building to rubble". With guitar suitably adjusted and turned down, they now head into ‘Home Life’, inspired by his upbringing in suburban Baltimore. The song allows JMs tremulous voice to take centre stage and what a voice it is. Easy to admire on record, it almost seems impossible witnessed live.
The rest of the set is a mix of old songs and tracks from their recent covers album ‘Fellow Travellers’, where they decided to record one of their favourite songs from a band who they have toured with over the years. Nice idea and a pleasant enough album, but didn’t satisfy my desire for new material. (That's coming by the end of the year apparently, with a sound unlike anything they have put out to date)
Wrapping up with a 3 set encore, ending on a Clinic cover, they leave the stage and the crowd leave the venue satisfied with their fix of Shearwater, however can't help feeling its just a taster for new album to come.
Keith @kjsmith4082