 
My first visit to Camden's KOKO, and what a treat
in store. After catching Manchester Orchestra
at their opening UK tour date in Bristol, I knew
this was going to be a corker. Following what
is arguably the best album of 2011 (even with
a two months still to go), Manchester Orchestra
end their spree of UK dates here in London for
a sold out show.
You enter KOKO via a tunnelled walkway that spits
you out on a balcony that overlooks the sound-desk
and down into the pit beyond. Stairs whisk you
up to the heavens or down to stage level depending
on your nosebleed tendencies, and from the lower
levels you can gaze up in awe at all the balconied
cubbyholes that fill the enormously tall walls
of this beautiful venue.
First up were The Xcerts, the Scottish thrash-pop
three-piece who have managed to secure supporting
slots with some incredible acts over the past
few years. In all honesty, I wasn't overly impressed
during the Bristol show but the wondrous entrance
to this exquisite venue had filled me with a renewed
sense of openness; and I'm pleased to report that
the second time around, it was an enjoyable set.
I think my initial qualm was that they don't really
sound anything like Manchester Orchestra and so
were an odd choice for support, but once you get
over that, they're a cracking edition to Scotland's
growing arsenal of energetic bands. Combinations
of small gentle sections contrasted with pounding
thrashy pacey choruses seem to fill Xcerts' repertoire,
and a distinctly Scottish distorted vocal squawks
above. With only a half an hour set, the trio
had just enough time to play a decent introduction
to the band, including Carnival Time and Slackerpop
which features one of the most memorable choruses
I've heard in a long while. There's something
about an elongated “woo” which lodges
itself firmly in a gap between your memory bank
and voice-box and leaves you forever woo-ing tunefully.
The vocalist would shake his head wildly whilst
singing, flicking his long blonde hair everywhere
like some kind of dandy lion. (See what I did
there?) And what polite gentlemen too, clearly
honoured to be there, and to be listened to. The
crowd responded well (there were a lot of Scots
in actually,) and gave applause aplenty as the
final song ended and the singer stood at the front
of the stage calling out the chorus line over
and over amid a wall of fuzz, as the other two
left the stage. And then we were left in silence,
to unwillingly sing our own tributes to that Slackerpop
chorus.
Next up was the main event, the real deal; Manchester
Orchestra. Front man Andy Hull took to the stage
accompanied by lead guitarist Robert McDowell
and keyboardist Chris Freeman – the latter
two members providing backing vocals for the first
track of the set, and the opener to the new album,
Deer. Instantly, the room was transfixed; not
only by the beauty of the song, but by the brilliance
of Hull's live voice. Singing along at the top
of our lungs, this was a beautiful start to the
show. Now the whole room was one family, and drummer
Tim Very and bassist Jonathan Corley joined the
others on stage. Next up was Pride from 2009's
Mean Everything To Nothing – a track which
starts off gentle enough but soon develops into
a a monster rock track. This was a slightly improvised
version of the song which really built up the
outro, and escalated the ending riff into an outrageously
exhilarating rock stomp. The crowd had barely
got their breath back when April Fool exploded
off the stage, one of my top picks from the excellent
new album Simple Math – followed by 100
Dollars and My Friend Marcus, both of which were
crowd-favourites. And then an old one for the
core fans, the thrashtastic Now That You're Home.
The band looked incredibly comfortable on stage,
with Andy Hull screaming wide-eyed into his microphone
staring up at the walls full of fans, snapping
away to pace around the stage and grin at the
other band members, whilst Chris Freeman sat at
his keyboard head-banging harder than anyone sitting
down ever has before. Occasionally he would about
turn and play a smaller drum kit, mimicking the
efforts of Tim Very who put a tremendous amount
of enthusiasm into his big hits. McDowell provided
high backing vocals from behind a screen of floppy
blonde hair and seemed to be enjoying himself,
whilst Corley on bass did what Corley does best;
standing calmly, looking up into space.
Next up, and possibly one of the strongest live
songs from the night was Pale Black Eye- a track
with incredible flow and grooves galore, even
if the subject matter is a little sombre. This
was followed by Pensacola, I've Got Friends, Shake
It Out, and I Can Barely Breathe. Then, some pre-song-warm-up
twiddles from McDowell and Hull could only mean
one thing; the slow yet stunning Simple Math was
upon us, and everyone tried their best to sing
along to Hull's re-ordering of the lyrics. The
main set finished with an early Colly Strings
and a new rendition of The Only One. This started
as a slow and soft version, just Andy, the audience,
and his guitar. He asked that there was no rhythmic
clapping (it only puts him off) but asked that
everyone sang along. Unless they didn't know the
song in which case “it's on us.” But
of course, we all new the song and obliged in
joining him in chorus. As the song drew to a close,
it exploded into a full-band outro and rocked
Camden Town to its core.
The start of the encore was something very new
to this tour, and it came in the shape of Virgin.
Whilst this might not strike you as a surprising
addition, what with it being a (stupidly incredible)
single, it hasn't featured on this UK tour due
to the type of guitar used in its recorded. However,
the band had hired out a baritone guitar just
for this night, and this song. Alas, things didn't
go quite to plan. If you've seen footage of the
song being played live on the David Letterman
show, you'll know that the intro is somewhat ignored
and the song kicks off from verse two, which is
fine. And a similar format was followed here in
KOKO except that, the first verse was used instead
of the second and subsequently didn't fit as well.
There was a faint glimmer of disappointment in
Hull's eyes as he realised this wasn't going to
work, but the rest of the song continued seamlessly.
Then, back to the main guitar for Mean Everything
To Nothing, my favourite from the album of the
same name, and The River, before closing with
Turn Out The Lights, for which we returned to
the opening line up of Hull on lead and McDowell
and Freeman on backing vocals. This was a track
from the Myspace Transmissions EP and is mainly
about dying; but alas, the lyrics “turn
out the lights, the party's over, and they say
all good things must end. So turn out the lights,
the party's over, and tomorrow we'll start the
same old shit again.”
A delightful end to an impeccable show, and an
extraordinary band. I have a serious amount of
time for Manchester Orchestra.
The Xcerts – 4.5/5
Manchester Orchestra– 5/5
Review By Thom Curtis
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