Nothing But Thieves
On a short promotional tour via HMV to promote their number one album ‘Dead Club City’ Nothing But Thieves arrived at the UEA in good heart and smiles aplenty.
Billed as ‘An Acoustic Evening With….’ The band slimmed down to a three piece to perform a collection of songs taken from across their career thus far with the addition of fans given the opportunity to ask questions in a Q&A style at a couple of points between songs.
What initially stood out for me was seeing a real mix of ages of people in the audience. I always find that a great sign of how good the artist is that you’re about to see, how they can reach different walks of life and draw them into their world and music is a wonderful thing.
Getting to hear these songs in their acoustic form allows you to witness how they were born, how they were created. Opening with three tracks from Dead Club City (Overcome being a specific highlight) and being stripped back to their purest form, you get a wonderful imagery of how much the band has grown and progressed.
Singer Connor Mason’s vocal range is quite incredible. Diving in and out of different keys and scales without missing a beat and sounding angelic one moment to a dark force the next, Connor powers through the songs with fantastic clarity and energy.
Connor is joined by guitarists Joe Langridge-Brown and Dom Craik, all three are incredibly relaxed and enjoy the back and forth with the fans, especially a couple right at the front who insist on counting the band in at the start of each song which was sometimes effective and sometimes otherwise!
We’re treated to a beautiful cover of the Radiohead classic ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ and as part of the ‘Q&A’ the guys declared them as their favourite band and a huge inspiration to them.
There was also a massive nod of appreciation to Jeff Buckley, it should be noted that Connor’s vocal range is very similar to Buckley’s and his choice of ‘Lover, you should have come over’ as his most loved song is perfectly apt.
Highlight of the night for me was a stunning rendition of ‘Lover, Please Stay’ a song taken from their debut album and one the band said they hadn’t played in a good eight years and might need a moment to remember. But remember it they did and it sounded glorious.
You can hear the aforementioned Jeff Buckley influence flowing through the song, it was tender and beautiful. I’d suggest the band add it to their upcoming arena tour, it’ll be a wonderful addition. Huge congrats to the fans in the audience who suggested they play this song.
Another couple of fan favourites in Amsterdam and Sorry delighted those who chose to sing along as well as others who just let the music flow through them.
It was truly wonderful to witness a band so relaxed and enjoying themselves, this is something I feel a lot more artists should aspire to do, let us see how earnest and creative you are. This hour spent with Nothing But Thieves was truly special, thanks to them and HMV, I hope there’s more to come.
