The Noah and the Whale show at the HOB Anaheim was packed! The place was bursting at the seams for a little British band I was starting to wonder if anyone else in SoCal had heard of.
Overall a decent show. Finally got to see the band that introduced me to a whole crew of great British musicians. I will make a bit of a confession though. I really dug the sound of their first album more so than the others. Mainly its instrumentation. Now that's not to say I like the layered Sgt Peppers sound on some of their songs, more I just dig the acoustic blended sound. This was not the sound they had this evening however, opting to be a bit more electric.
They hit the songs I was expecting, although I was kinda supprised they played 5 Years Time given the prominence of Laura Marling on it. Met up with an old friend from college at the show and we both agreed that there was some strange Springsteen connection in the bands sound that evening.
I was glad to see they did an upbeat show. With a pause in the middle for some "romantic time" music, of course. As always, I worry about mellow bands when they're live. These guys were full of energy and Charlie Fink was dancing around the stage "like Mick Jagger" as a fellow concert goer put it.
I have already gone on ad nauseum about Noah and the Whale, so I will keep all my ramblings about the band, who's not in it any more, and all that to a minimum. Good show... Good show...
