There is something about one man with an acoustic guitar standing in front of a crowd and playing to absolute rapturous silence which can make almost any song sound stunning. After a self-effacing and awkward introduction Liam Frost (whose Mancunian-accented vocals have a bite which brings to mind I Am Kloot numerous times) begins by achieving this with his very first song, Shall We Dance?, which possesses an intense, dramatic swing to it far beyond the Fretwells and Tunstalls of this world, despite occasional assaults of unneeded harmonica (which dog a few other songs tonight too).
Rather than attempt this feat for a whole set, he brings out a five-piece band, The Slowdown Family, who seem very professional and accomplished but for a couple of songs seem to undermine Frost's efforts by being a little too assured for his songs of insecurity. As the set goes on he visibly grows in confidence, sharing jokes with the crowd and band members, and their endearing alt-folk comes into its own, with a thunderous finale of The Mourners Of St. Paul's as he brings out an electric guitar for the first time particlalrly impressive.
The serious problem which makes them appear enjoyable but inessential though is that of overfamiliarity. Not only are folky singer-songwriters so common but direct influences are all too apparent - three seperate songs are too close to Bright Eyes' 'I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning' for comfort.
In some ways support band Lisa Brown don't step too far from their main stated influences either - New Order and Doves are much in evidence - but turn them into such sweet, glittery pop that not even an awful sound setup and a short set can do much to stop them. What's That Sound is more forceful than on record but still pure disco fun and new songs are uniformly even better than old. Hopefully they'll play a headlining date down here soon.
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