I Am Kloot are a band it’s hard not to like in an almost personal way. The Manchester-based trio exude warmth, northern charm and a sense of self-contentment, seemingly impervious to the fact that they still haven’t made it as big as everyone thinks they should. Maybe that’s unsurprising. With the band’s leader in his forties, maybe it would be odder if they weren’t making music for reasons other than pampering egos. And it shows.
Sky at Night, their fifth and latest album, is as honest as it is gently and disturbingly beautiful. It's arguably also as much the product of producers Guy Garvey and Craig Potter (from Elbow). That raises the question of how it might sound live. Sky at Night’s production, sometimes subtle, sometimes lavish, has lifted the band’s sound out of idiosyncratic indie folk. Garvey, however, says the band is really all about live performances. That thought surely underlay the anticipation at last night’s sold-out Union Chapel. Quiches and Kit Kats I have often seen at the Union; this is the first time I have seen ticket touts.
The new material was surprisingly close to the original, just with a bit more kick. To recreate this sound, five additional touring band members had been drafted in, and the set - all one-and-a-half hours of it - combined new and old. Visually the three proper band members came over like beloved faculty members of some regional polytechnic on an open-mic night. Singer John Bramwell preferred to stand with one leg on a cardboard box to rest his guitar than use a strap, he and bassist Peter Jobson wore ill-fitting suits, and drummer Andrew Hargreaves looked like he had just emerged from a sociology seminar.
For the most part the audience, though, comprised professionals in their late-thirties; the Latitude Festival demographic. Surprising then that they created the atmosphere of a homecoming gig. The band came on to whoops, they left to whoops and the whooping hardly let up throughout.
The evening began with “Northern Skies”, Bramwell’s broken voice, with its infectious sense of kindliness and roguishness, suggesting that something bigger than our understanding might control our destiny. But soon we were where destinies are more often than not decided – in the bar. “Lately” whelped like an alcoholic at closing time and “To the Brink” used the hired help to great effect to convey the pathos of broken lives kept afloat by booze.
Watch the video for "Northern Skies":
Then came the greatest-hits section. The applause never let up nor changed. Although some of the older songs sound like more primitive cousins to Sky at Night on record, live it was a different matter. Garvey was right. The energy never really stopped, it just got punctuated by Bramwell’s jokes. “Stars Look Familiar”, “From Your Favourite Sky” and “Storm Warning”, all played without the extended band, stuck out for me. “86 TVs" was notable for breaking the snare drum, and there was an appealing interlude when Bramwell sang “No Fear of Falling” and “At the Sea” solo. As for the weaker numbers, I was so caught up in the general enthusiam, I didn't really take note.
The crowd's favourites were “The Moon is a Blind Eye” and “Radiation”; which are also pretty much the highlights of the new album, both musically and lyrically. “To be loved is to be divine,” sang Bramwell in “The Moon is a Blind Eye”. Moments later, on "Twist”, he was singing “There’s blood on your legs/ I love you”. One guy stood up and started spontaneously waving his arms. I am not sure what it is about this band that inspires such unlikely fanaticism, but I suspect it’s the lyrics and the fact that still, after five albums, they are only really delivered to a fanbase.
After the last song 800 people stood up and cheered as if they were at a rally. And then, as the Union’s curfew cut short the encores, they walked out into the pouring rain with Bramwell’s poetry swimming around their heads. Where do I Am Kloot go from here? With the new album, there’s every chance that they may finally get the recognition they deserve I'm not sure what the fans will make of that. But whatever the stars have in store for Bramwell, Hargreaves, and Jobson, they are bound to carry on pretty much the same.
- I Am Kloot on tour until January
- Find I Am Kloot on Amazon
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