Noah & The Whale live review
18th August 2008
I really wish I’d arrived early to Noah and the Whale’s gig, as Edinburgh’s Cabaret Voltaire was probably the busiest I’d ever seen it. I was stuck beside a girl who didn’t shut up once about her mate ‘dinging’ her, a confusing contrast to the loving happy music Noah and the Whale where riddling out. Once I had successfully blocked her tones out and concentrated on the dreamy pop tunes of the five piece that reside in London, it was clear this band were definitely exciting!
These Whalers with their softhearted folk, skippy rhythms, brass instruments and whistling are on the charm offensive. Each song catches you and whisks you away to some meadow in a sunny place.
They have been together little over a year and judging by the size of the audience, they are bringing back folk. Old and young turned out and I have to say a lot were in a tight lip lock with their partners for most of the set. I wasn’t and I still loved it!
Their acoustic set was sometimes a little quiet for Cabaret Voltaire and I felt their rehearsal may have been round a camp fire but never the less the energy was definitely there. How they fit five people onto such a tiny stage was mind boggling enough.
Their most well known song ‘5 Years Time’, is one of those songs that is so catchy and works so well that for the first 10 seconds you’re trying to figure out where you’ve heard it before?
Music magazines are calling Noah and the Whale’s music ‘post grunge folk’ but I have no idea what that means so I call it lovely!
words: Fiona Gardner
photos: John Sault
