The Crookes @ the Waterfront
Big up support Misty Miller.
The Crookes called in at the Waterfront on date number seven of a gruelling schedule that doesn't finish until their Sheffield homecoming in 20 days and 16 gigs' time.
Opening for them in Norwich are local band Montagues & Capulets, whose album Landscapes of Youth was favourably received on its release in 2014. There are a couple of newer songs included in their set tonight, including Aileen signposting a maturity in their songwriting which justifies their dramatic moniker.
Next up is Misty Miller. Despite sounding like a renegade from Camberwick Green, she is a dynamic singer-songwriter from south London with five years recording experience under her 21 year old belt. Back in 2011 she was being compared to Laura Marling, but has since grown into her own skin in a way that now pitches her edgily against the likes of Courtney Barnett. Playing acoustic guitar, and hauntingly accompanied by Tom Shelton on electric, Miller presents a contemporary twist on everything from country and western to the blues. With deference to her great antecedents she ends her set with Melanie Safka's beautiful Look What They've Done to My Song Ma. Awesome.
The Crookes are touring to promote Lucky Ones, album number four. They've undergone a couple of changes in line up since 2008, but essentially they continue to epitomise the classic four-piece guitar band. They're good, but with the previous three albums failing to storm the charts, they risk succumbing to musical fashion if they don't update the formula. The faithful here tonight will sing along with familiar (to them) songs like Where Did Our Love Go? and Bear's Blood, but to me they homogenise into nostalgic re-works of indie-pop's glory days. The stand-out moment of their set is when Misty Miller reappears on stage to duet on the B-side Ex-Lovers.
There is no encore, so we leave the Waterfront with the refrain from Afterglow running through our frontal lobes. But it's the talented Miss Miller who reaches the cerebral cortex.
