“Well we’ve been brilliant tonight!”
As he closed his band’s Concorde 2 visit I Am Kloot’s frontman and lyricist John Bramwell didn’t need any sort of outside reviewer to tell him how well his band had played.
Stripped back down to a three-piece – with bassist Peter Jobson eschewing his onstage chair for the first time in years – the 2015 I Am Kloot were a muscular affair.
With only guitar, bass and drums Bramwell’s songs still sounded as strong as ever, with calls on the audience to fill in extra elements such as the accordion on To The Brink.
The pared back set up allowed Bramwell’s lyrical bruised romance to shine through on a show which perhaps unsurprisingly drew more on their first four albums as a trio - with highlights including Storm Warning, Gods And Monsters, To You, Life In A Day and Proof - than the more heavily orchestrated later albums.
That said songs like Masquerade and Fingerprints still worked in the simplified format, showing Bramwell’s songwriting quality has never diminished despite the extra bells and whistles.
But perhaps because those early songs were lesser known the Concorde 2 audience seemed intent on yakking all the way through the show.
I Am Kloot fans expect nothing less than brilliance – the songs provide that alone – but sadly the audience made it a frustrating experience.
Four stars
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