Embrace
Bradford’s Glass Mountain have a dramatic and at times haunting sound that ticks along rather beautifully during their set this evening. Despite some big issues with a guitar amp mid-set, and after a few patient minutes while a guitar technician tries to fix it to no avail, they decide to crack on and hope for the best. It worked and they were able to finish their set intact, but it did appear to mute the audience’s response as they exited the stage. Sadly the sound quality would go on to impact on the rest of the evening’s proceedings. But fair play to them for their utterly professional attitude - they are more than a decent band and definitely warrant further investigation, try starting with the quite stunning Glacial if you haven’t heard of them before now.
Kicking off with All You Good, Good People and the customary whistles of Danny McNamara, Embrace enter to the stage in a venue that just instantly appears to be far too small for them. Tonight is once again another sold out Embrace gig in Norwich as lead singer Danny reminds us they have a good following in this part of the world, so on that basis I just don’t understand why they have been downsized to the much smaller Waterfront venue this evening as their big sound just gets lost and vibrates rather excruciatingly all too often off the close knit walls and low ceilings for far too much of the show.
At times he tries far too hard with the crowd mid-song, trying to whoop them up then dries up and has nothing to say in between too many others - there are far too many quiet moments. It’s an unusual Embrace gig that’s for sure, and feels a bit un-rehearsed.
Someday is one of the band's career highlights from their very impressive back catalogue, and indeed one of their very finest songs, yet it just lacks its regular killer touch as the sound gets nullified maybe in an attempt to cope with the environment. It's just not working out. One fan, situated down the front, complains about the sound to the wrong man who is sitting behind the amps and duly gets referred to the sound/mixing desk at the back of the Waterfront by Richard McNamara - I don’t think that Richard was getting the point of the fan's disgruntled comment. It was a lost moment on the band but not on me as I all too often winced at the distortion.
Danny’s voice has come in for some fairly harsh criticism at times in the past, yet his fragile tones have always for me been part of the beauty of some of their finest and most beautiful of moments, but based on this evening I have to be honest and say that at times it was excruciatingly bad as Out Of Nothing (another big favourite of mine) gets murdered. His vocal is way off pace and totally out of tune, it's shockingly bad, and hard for this hardcore Embrace fan to take.
Come Back To What You Know, Save Me, One Big Family, Gravity, Protection, Ashes and the final song Good Will Out ensure that the audience get their moments to sing along to a rather all too disappointing and safe set list.
Two new songs are aired during the set and appear to be quite well received - a new album will be released early in 2017. Danny promises the crowd that it will be all filler and no killer, but based on tonight’s show I will need some convincing.
During the encore, they do a cover of Greg Lake’s I Believe In Father Christmas. It should be brilliant, but once again McNamara’s vocal lets him down - he totally decimates not only one of the greatest Christmas songs ever, but also the tribute and spirit of the moment.
It really just didn’t hit the spot for me this evening as I trundle back into the cold, wet dampness of the late evening feeling extremely disappointed and frustrated.
