Chapel Club at The Academy 2 – 25 February 2011
Review Vanessa Monaghan
Of all the gigs, I’ve seen so far in 2011, Chapel Club was the one I was looking forward to most. Another UK band who are making waves in their home territory but not quite at the same level in Ireland, yet.
First up was the chance to for me to fall under the spell of the ‘Funeral Suits’ who seem to know exactly what I like. Rock and electronic elements are mixed with distorted guitars and vocal harmonies to produce quite a refreshing sound for the Irish Indie scene.
Onstage, the band change instruments throughout their set. The changeover could be hurried along/changed a bit to make the set more fluid. Tracks like ‘Stars are Spaceships’ make their Stephen Street produced debut a record to watch out for later this year.
After a lengthy gap Chapel Club come to the stage. The band, who have just released their debut album ‘Palace’ chose to open their set with the current single ‘Surfacing’. Originally due to be the band’s debut single, it’s release was delayed thanks to the usage of the song ‘Dream A Little Dream Of Me’. A strange choice to start with given the songs current popularity, hopefully they wouldn’t peak too soon.
The band fit somewhere between Joy Division and Echo and The Bunnymen. Lewis Bowman’s baritone vocals fit right into Ian Curtis territory and as a frontman he seems to move in slow motion, half that of his fellow band mates. Every move Bowman makes is deliberate, using the mic stand as a prop, occasionally dropping a wry smile.
The tremolo laden tracks charm the polite indie audience as the other members of the band play effortlessly. Chapel Club perform tracks from their album along with ‘Roads’ and ‘Bodies’ from their ‘Wintering’ EP.
Bowman announces that the band have two songs left as they start into ‘Paper Thin’. The band have a dark indie sound and they are good at what they do. ‘All The Eastern Girls’ has The Academy wrapped in the band and is a definite stand out track for them.
The Chapel Club frontman speaks and kudos to him, says, roughly ‘look you guys don’t know us very well and I think the walk off the stage to walk back on for an encore is cheesy. Encores are cheesy’. He gains a lot of respect in the room. The stomping ‘White Lies’esque ‘Five Trees’ begins the ‘non encore’ and is followed by fan favourite ‘The Shore’. The band leave the stage to warm appreciation.
The singles ‘O Maybe I’, ‘All The Eastern Girls’ and ‘Surfacing’ are highlights of the night. Chapel Club are only starting out and this was their debut headline Irish gig. A little bit more exposure and a couple more killer songs and they will completely capture the dark side of indie, which has been looking for new Kings.
Set List:
- Surfacing
- White Knight Position
- Blind
- Roads
- Fine Light
- O Maybe I
- Bodies
- Paper Thin
- All The Eastern Girls
- Five Trees
- The Shore