Midlake
The prospect of seeing Midlake live was an exciting one. The superb album The Trials of Van Occupanther is peppered with themes of nature, conjuring nostalgic feelings of the countryside and man's relationship with it. A bunch of grown men with gruffty beards singing delicately about nature is a wonderful juxtaposition. A juxtaposition reminiscent of Grandaddy perhaps, but to compare Midlake with Granddaddy would be wholly unfair - overlooking their own unique sound.
After strong support form Robert Gomez and Fionn Regan, Midlake took to the stage. The crowd went crazy when they started playing the single Rosco, and there were cries for a repeat of the same song. Every song was accompanied with some strange film in the background - some homemade, others seeming very familiar and possibly a Roman Polanski film - but don't quote me on that. The films really helped to bolster the song's strange eerie feel, conjuring a lost time and lost place. It was nice to see that the band were very humbled by the crowds' affection towards them, singing along to all their songs.
There's something strangely important about wanting to see a band we like live, but so often they never live up to the same sound quality we know them for. And particulary when you have a band that doesn't make 'jump-up' music, the sound quality has to be spot on. Sadly this wasn't the case at ULU. The gig itself was entertaining, but the sounds did no justice to Tim Smith's vocals and of course the songs lost much of their eerie magic. They ended the set with current single Head Home, perfectly apt and a crowd pleaser to finish on a higher note.
Luckily, I caught the band a couple of nights later, supporting the Flaming Lips at Shepherd's Bush... with much more satisfying results.