I was quite looking forward to seeing Chapel Club after hearing their courtyard session for The Fly out the window when I was working at hmv Live. They sounded great and I really liked their singles 'Surfacing' and 'All The Eastern Girls'. Unfortunately, these were the two best songs in their set and the rest was quite monotonous and uninspiring.
Heaven was sold out and completely jammed full of people keen to see a band who I considered would be amongst 'the next big things'. I'd become wary before the gig as their album had received a luke-warm reception but I was still expecting a good show. They opened with Surfacing which I enjoyed, along with the rest of the crowd. Then they proceeded to play album tracks for the next half an hour which quite honestly all sounded a bit too similar to one another to be interesting. Frontman Lewis Bowman has a great voice and they could do something much more interesting with it, but the melodies were all quite safe and formulaic. They don't seem to experiment enough which is a shame as Surfacing and All The Eastern Girls are good pop songs in their own right, but when played in the context of the album, they just sound like all the other songs.
I wouldn't rush to see these guys again, nor will I rush out to buy their album, but judging by the rest of the crowd who seemed happy enough listening to a mediocre indie band - they'll do just fine.
5/10
Listen: Chapel Club Myspace
No comments:
Post a Comment