Live Review – The Union Choir

The Union Choir ‘Your Melodica’ Single Launch Event @ The Cluny 1

With Support from Lake Poets, Prison Library and O’Messy Life

By Glen Lewis

The Union Choir are everything a modern band needs to be. They have a very strong sense of self, a healthy love of music, buckets of talent and enough style and substance to demand the attention of any size of audience. For their launch event celebrating the release of ‘Your Melodica’, they chose The Cluny, one of Newcastle’s most prolific and characteristic locations, as their venue. They chose a stellar selection of support acts and the turnout on the night was staggering. In short, this was one of the most promising gigs I’ve been to in a long time and it had a lot to live up to.

The Lake Poets (Coming in the form of Martin Longstaff on his own for the most part, with harmonica and vocal accompaniment from his friend Steve in the latter half of the set) set himself up quietly and was an invisible entity right up until he said hello – but the audience was encapsulated from start to finish once he got into his stride. Martin displayed a vocal range and fidelity not seen often enough in singer songwriters, showing that he had the ability to call on both a powerful and a soft tone with clarity and character. His songs were largely melancholic with a more upbeat number thrown in from time to time and the addition of the harmonica added another layer of charm to this solid performance. Displaying great song writing skills and a performance to match, The Lake Poets are headed for big places if there’s any justice in the world.

Keeping the quality of the night high, Prison Library took the evening in a more energetic direction next. The attention to detail these guys displayed was something I noticed over and over – subtle samples beefing up the sound, constant retuning and tweaking and the never-ending focus evident in every member. The guitar was out of this world and the drummer made the pacey, complex beats look easy as hell to pull off and barely broke a sweat. The vocalist had a breathy delivery a-la Sterophonics and the preciseness and faintly funky tone blended with the pop-punk outer shell reminded me very much of Mutemath.  While their music was top-shelf quality, the band didn’t radiate much warmth towards the audience, and their vocalist actually seemed afraid to look at us – it seemed to be a stylistic choice and they wanted to seem like the cool, distant types, but it’s okay to interact between songs at the very least. Any distance was forgiven, however, thanks to the sheer impressiveness of their musical prowess.

O’Messy Life came next and they were an absolute curiosity to begin with as they ambled quietly onto the stage, looking uncomfortable and a little reserved.  My instinct was that we were going to be treated to something quite country, but in a more accessible, Band of Horses style as more recent country inclined bands tend to do. In the end, there was a fair bit of Americana in there too and though the first song seemed a little uncertain and all the band members seemed to be holding something back, they really let loose more and more as the set went on. The set was of two halves – songs often unfolded as they went on, developing from calm, country blues to massive tumbling crescendos. The guys all had a really strong connection with one another and often interacted mid-song, communicating and working together to create a really powerful, nuanced performance that seemed to encapsulate the entire audience.

A very long gap gave birth to a restless crowd as The Union Choir set up their stage. Littered with little fairy lights and with a backdrop displaying their single artwork, it looked great and though the band has many members, they fit nicely and definitely looked the part. The sprawling gap that punctuated O’Messy Life’s set and their own was largely due to technical troubles getting the violin to work – which never quite got resolved, much to the chagrin of the band and the audience. It’s a shame, because having heard the band before; I know that violinist Sinéad Krzyzyk adds huge depth and a delicate touch to The Union Choir’s sound.

Nevertheless, they soldiered on and played what was an encapsulating performance filled with Geordie-tinted bassy vocals, smart as hell drum patterns and splashes of musical spice in the form of the odd accordion accompaniment and an ever-pleasing saxophone presence to liven up the tunes. It certainly wasn’t the show of their lifetime as other minor hitches and glitches hound the band throughout, but after all is said and done, it’s quite clear that The Union Choir know what they’re doing, and do so with all the style and grace that every upcoming artist should look to emulate. They portrayed melancholy in the sad parts and joy in the happy parts, crafting an emotional and balanced show that’s definitely worth seeing.

You can check all of these bands out on Facebook, and you can buy The Union Choir’s new single ‘Your Melodica’ now on Bandcamp. Which I suggest you do, because it’s well good.