Slow Club, Islington Union Chapel

Slow Club

December 1st, 2008

Most people walking along Upper Street in Islington are oblivious to the fact that they pass one of London’s most unique and wonderfully atmospheric venues on a daily basis.

Careful selection of performers and the recent ‘Little Noise’ gigs, which included the likes of The Killers and Glasvegas, have helped raise the profile of the Union Chapel, one of London’s best kept secrets.

Tonight, the mood is an intimate, cosy and festive one with a range of support acts, including Jay Jay Pistolet, Adem, Lisa Milberg (of The Concretes) and stewards handing out free tea and coffee. The mood was set for what proved to be a vibrant performance by Charles and Rebecca, the two-piece, folk inspired duo who trade under the name Slow Club.

The band, aided at times by a cross-pollination of the support artists, created a range of textures in a set, which was beautifully shambolic and elegant in equal measures. Highlights included a specialist saw player and Jay Jay Pistolet’s drummer playing the drums, accordian and a shaker all at once.

With Rebecca standing to play the drums and percussion, including a bruised and battered chair, and Charles taking centre stage armed with an acoustic guitar, the two are capable of creating an incredible range of dynamics given their limited use of instrumentation. Their songs play with the male-female discussions about relationships they are able to comment upon with their use of duel vocals.

Playing all of the songs from their recently released EP, ‘Let’s Fall Back In Love’, although inexplicably, leaving out the sublime ‘Come On Youth’, Slow Club call a group of friends on to the stage to help sing the title track. It was at this point that Rebecca urged the audience to stand, which they did for the remainder of the set. This spontaneous act helped the night to end on a rather poetic and poignant note as it gave the impression of a congregation standing to witness a couple marrying.

With Charles dressed in white and Rebecca in black, the two took to the front of the stage to sing their encore, ‘When I Go’, without any amplification. The song tells the tale of two close friends, promising to marry one another when they are twenty, thirty, forty or sixty, should they both be unable to find a partner. As the song climaxes with the harmonised voices singing, ‘will you hold my hand when I go?’, it is a truly spine-tingling moment.

The warmth between the childhood friends from Sheffield is evident throughout the evening; however, tonight I left with the impression that Union Chapel on a cold December evening is the setting that Slow Club, and their music, were meant for.

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