The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 6 September 2009

Arriving at the Deaf Institute in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, I could tell something important was happening. I couldn’t find a parking space. Now I’ve come to expect that for big acts appearing at one of the adjacent university venues, but not at the tiny 200 capacity DI. Well eventually a pizza delivery guy moved off into the damp, dark night and I pounced. So what’s so special about The Low Anthem you may ask. Anyone who has acquired the American trio’s latest album, OH MY GOD, CHARLIE DARWIN, will tell you it’s distinctive and one of the best modern folk albums delivered in 2009. And that’s why I was there.

If you want to know more about the band check out the recently uploaded ‘The Low Anthem Story So Far.’

As I have never experienced a capacity audience at the DI I was in for a bit of a shock. I walked slowly up the stairs to the tiny venue and could hear the support band playing. I then opened to the door and was met by a gush of hot, humid air akin to walking out of a plane at Dubai airport. The place was crammed but I eventually squeezed down to the front to catch the last few songs from a Brit band called  The Goldheart Assembly.

Jake Bowser (keyboards, vocals), James Dale (vocals, bass), Nicky Francis (drums, vocals), Thomas Hastings (vocals), John Herbert (vocals, guitar), Dominic Keshavarz (lead guitar, vocals).

Here’s what the Guardian write about the guys:

“These days, guitar bands with a penchant for West Coast harmony rock are more likely to get compared to a certain Seattle act. And so it is that, because of their beards, perhaps, or the ethereal loveliness of their melodies, London six-piece Goldheart Assembly are finding themselves touted as the British Fleet Foxes. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing: early reports that MGMT were the new Flaming Lips/Mercury Rev hardly hindered their ascent, did it?

They’ve only been together a matter of months and already they’ve had page features in music weeklies and got prominent “indie” radio DJs frothing at the mouth. Much has been made of the fact that they’re an amalgam of two former rival bands, led by Goldheart’s two frontmen, the one “experimental and ramshackle”, the other “professional and unartistic”. They apparently bonded over a shared love of Tom Waits, cheap red wine and The Band’s Last Waltz film. They currently record in an old steam-train museum in Norfolk where they’ve arrayed a range of vintage equipment among the classic traction engines and steamrollers. They’ve got two modes. They do chugging and rocky, or solemn and slow. Their debut single, fits into the former category, and appears to be a critique of the indie milieu – the scene that flagellates itself – with references to the NME, the Camden Crawl and “new sensations.”

And it’s all true! Strong melodies, accomplished playing and really great voices. These guys can croon and rock, alt-country style, in equal measure, and the crowd loved ‘em. More than impressed…