White Lies

Concorde 2, Brighton, Thursday, January 31

WHITE Lies marked the ten-year anniversary of their first album with the launch of their latest album, Five, at Concorde 2.

The lads kicked off with Five’s opening track Time To Give, singer Harry McVeigh exploring a number of Messianic poses and revving the crowd into a frenzy of adoration.

Earlier, bassist Charles Cave had tweeted that the evening’s set would be lengthy, promising “the whole new album… some oldies… a rarity” and thus it was the case, the audience growing increasingly ardent as the show progressed, until cries of “I f***ing love you” threatened to drown out the stadium-esque sounds of the band.

These were the cries of men who had clearly found deep solace in the lyrics and sound of White Lies during their ten-year presence on the indie scene.

There Goes Our Love Again from 2013’s Big TV album was an outstanding three minutes of sheer unadulterated euphoria, with its elated space-synth filling the cavernous venue and moving even the most rigid attendee to dance.

With White Lies fans it’s an ability to hear beyond what can sometimes sound formulaic that unites them.

And breaking through the field of noise created by the synth to find the taut, intense rhythms executed by Jack Lawrence-Brown, it’s easy to understand why the band make their audiences pulse quicken.

An engaging performance of Unfinished Business (from the formative album To Lose My Life…) held an atmosphere recognisable from a Guns And Roses performance, say, while Kick Me, a brand new track from Five contained enough reverb to inspire a garage mood in the most unlikely of persons, Colin from accounts maybe?

The set encore began with McVeigh performing a moving rendition of Change, alone, on keys, while the final track Fire And Wings demonstrated some of the band’s versatility, conjuring up a sort of early Deftones feel, a real departure from the sets overall rousing, carefree tenor.

White Lies have a stronghold over their audience’s hearts and Five is bound to satiate even the hungriest of them.

Kirsty Levett