The Murder Capital’s first album ‘When I Have Fears’ had all its songs written and recorded within the first nine months of the band knowing each other and came out of a sense of grief due to the passing of a close friend. The follow up `‘Gigi’s Recovery’ took a lot longer and came to light after the first attempt was scrapped. The end result is an incredible offering for such a young band and to me highlighted a maturity well beyond their youthful age.
The quintet walk on stage as the opening track `Existence` from the latest album is piped through the pa and head straight into `Crying` a gently shared and quite introspective listen. The blistering `More Is Less` follows as singer James balances precariously on a barrier at the edge of the stage, egging on the faithful.
The set is juggled around tonight with a couple of additions and others left out but we enjoy `Return My Head`, the fairly mesmeric `Green & Blue`, the intense `The Stars Will Leave Their Stage`, questioning `Love, Love, Love` and much more reflective pair of `The Lie Becomes The Self` and `On Twisted Ground`.
The shows really comes to life as James removes his sunglasses and the band blast out `For Everything`, the fairly hypnotic `A Thousand Lives` and passionate `Gigi’s Recovery`
The fellas swing between both albums in the home stretch with `We Had to Disappear`, the pounding `Feeling Fades`, dreamy `Only Good Things`, scorching `Don’t Cling to Life` before closing out on the immense `Ethel` as singer James once again takes a foray into the audience who gently pass him to and fro above their heads before he ends up safely back on stage and takes the deserved rapturous applause with the other band members before departing.
It`s over three years since I last saw the band at a venue a couple of miles down the road and tonight they have doubled that attendance and more and i`m sure if I can obtain a ticket next time they grace my hometown it`ll be another much bigger setting. The hour and a quarter we witnessed tonight showed a band who have transitioned to an outfit that have the world at their fingertips with a singer who seems more comfortable in the role of frontman and almost relishes the attention he receives. A band that i`m sure have an awful lot more to share with us and I for one certainly can`t wait.
