Chimpomatic

Back in the UK for the third time in a year (and with more dates scheduled for July), Band of Horses have picked up quite a following since 2007's show at the Scala. After great support sets from MGMT and Sons & Daughters, the crowd went ballistic for Ben Bridwell's band of hairy truckers. The huge crowd response showed a lot of dedicated followers in the audience - showing that there may be hope yet that a band that has clearly never been made-over by a skinny-jeans promoting stylist can still crack the mainstream.

Cease To Begin opener Is There A Ghost? started the show and set the modus operandi for the evening: amp everything up to the maximum and rock it out. While that worked superbly for the harder rocking numbers like Ode To LRC or Islands On The Coast, the poor bass in the house sound system didn't take it well and pretty much every track was flattened out by the overbearing bass drum and guitar. Only Bridwell's powerful voice could climb out of the rumble, which unfortunately meant a lot of the subtleties of tracks like The Great Salt Lake or The First Song were flattened out and buried. Spirits weren't dampened however and the rock and roll energy of the band carried the show along on a wave of enthusiasm.

It's clearly Bridwell's band and following the personnel re-structuring after Everything All Of The Time that seems like a fairly natural order. Concessions were made to the new members with the first "fake end song before we probably come back on" - a barnstorming rendition of over-looked Creedence classic Effigy - before keyboardist Ryan Monroe stepped in to provide vocals on a new track in the encore, making for a welcome departure and a possible indication of territory a third album might head off into. With Bridwell releasing his grip of iron over the band, things were now flowing fast and loose and foot-thumping party tune The General Specific made for a fine sing-a-long before a flowing cover of Ron Wood's soulful Act Together.

This is a real, working band that are picking up accolades and knocking out good music in quick rotation. Hopefully this is still just the beginning.