Slow Club, London Scala

Slow Club

September 24, 2009

From the first glimpse of the tops of their heads bobbing up and down right in the middle of the suddenly hushed Scala audience, it’s easy to see why Slow Club have gained such an enthusiastic following. If their debut album is impossible to dislike, then their live act has more than enough charm to convert even the smallest hint of passing interest into unabashed love by the end of the evening.

The duo have a surprisingly strong body of songs given their youth; ‘Wild Blue Milk’ didn’t even make the cut for the standard edition of their debut album, but the unamplified rendition amongst fans on the venue floor makes for an entrancing opener.

However, the warmth of Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor’s harmonised vocals and catchy melodies is only half the picture.

There’s a rare directness and purity to many of their lyrics, which are unadulterated by the meaningless rhyming couplets and laboured metaphors that are all too often the stock material of bands with plenty of enthusiasm to play music but little they want to say through it. And the kind of inventive yet timeless lines that make up ‘When We Go’ – “If we’re both not married by 24, will you pass me those knee-pads and I’ll get on the floor” – stand out all the more when the eyes of their creators are right there, shining with sincerity at what’s being sung.

Also, while few bands really understand how talk to their audiences – and still fewer to actually talk with them – Slow Club have no inhibitions on that front either. There’s an infectious sense of humour in the banter that runs between the pair as they argue about what to play next, and though Rebecca confesses that of late she has been trying to cut down on her cutsey, northern-accented ramblings between songs, the attitude of most attendees tonight must surely be ‘long may they continue’.

Called back on for a second encore, Charles admits that the reason they had not planned on playing any more songs was that they don’t have any more to play. And, when their attempt to finish things off with ‘Apples and Pairs’ falls apart at the seams, with Rebecca pointing out with a giggle half way through that Charles has begun singing her vocal parts by accident, it’s obvious he wasn’t lying. But if ever there was a way to end a gig with a shambolically underprepared, stop-start performance and yet still leave the crowd feeling even more endeared, Slow Club somehow seem to manage it.

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