The Slow Readers Club & Klangstof
A Friday night (23/9/22) spent right with two quality bands....
The Waterfront on a Friday means earlier than usual sets as the venue has to prepare for Propaganda, an indie disco night that is famous for its love for 90s music and Freshers arriving to drink alcopops having finally escaped the clutches of Mum and Dad.
But before that mayhem commences we have the quite wonderful Klangstof opening proceedings with their experimental synths and giant pop hooks. The three piece, based in Amsterdam, have toured with the likes of Mike Snow, The Flaming Lips and Jagwar Ma, thus bringing a powerful force to the stage.
Playing tracks mostly taken from their third album Gospeed To The Freaks, Klangstof owned the stage with their dark and ambient indie rock. At times reminding me of Ride, lead singer Koen van de Wardt’s vocal range is simply glorious. The dynamics of their sound blew me away, I cannot recommend this band highly enough. By the time they ended their set with Sylvia I was in love with my new favourite band. I reckon they could be yours too.
Manchester’s very own The Slow Readers Club headlined the night with their indie-electro songs being performed to a very loyal audience. The ‘Readers’ fans back their band to the hilt, most wearing, and at one stage removing, merchandise T-shirts, a sight to behold I must say!
The driving sounds of birthday boy Kurtis Starkie guitar really drove the songs forward. Lead singer Aaron Starkie vocal range matched his brothers playing as they ran through songs from each of their four studio albums. Aaron is a fantastic frontman, gets the audience engaged and works them well, there’s no arrogance involved, it is just pure joy.
Highlights of the set for me was the triple threat of You Opened Up My Heart, On The TV and I Saw A Ghost. TV especially got the audience moving and singing along to the riff, it was pretty darn joyous despite the dark nature of the song itself.
The encore starting with a mellow Block Out The Sun, showcasing the bands ability to slow it down as well as the angular noise-pop almost goth like sounds we’ve come to expect. It ends, fittingly, with the 80′s OMD like Lunatic, a song that left the fanatics at the front and the casuals at the back all coming together as one....Build a tower indeed, The Slow Readers Club are climbing to the top. Enjoy the ride.
