Paperjam

The Concretes, Birmingham Academy 2, 5th April

Gigs // Jim // 10th April 2006

Looks like I’m not the only person who can’t get anyone to go to see The Concretes. As I stroll into the bijou alcove that is the Birmingham Academy 2 there is a distinct lack of people about and absolutely zero queue at the bar.

Beer promptly procured, time to take in the solo folk-y stylings of support act Adem; A geezer accompanying himself on all manner of instruments including organ, guitar and on one song something that appeared, to a philistine like me, to be a broken clockwork toy. Adem is clearly a talented chap, he speaks softly, almost nervously between songs, belts out a rather good one called These are Your Friends (which I have since located on iTunes) and then goes to sit in the corner and have a chat.

Before the main event things fill up a bit more but not to the extent that I have to queue at all at the bar - I could get used to this. The crowd is one of the most atypical that I have seen at the Academy, there is a real range of ages in attendance. From some annoying college types (with annoyingly loud posh voices and annoying haircuts that probably went out of fashion during the evening), through middle-aged folk with all manner of digital photography equipment, a few Goths, some people like me and finally some senior citizens in body warmers. All in all, a very laid back, if sparse crowd.

The Concretes gradually slope onto the stage in an extremely relaxed manner and launch into a not all that relaxed Fiction. Singer Victoria Bergsman arrives last and couldn’t look less bothered if she tried, with all the enthusiasm of a teenage girl told to do her homework when she would rather be watching Pop Idol she lets out a bit of a sigh and (not quite) launches into the song, it is quite fantastic and has me grinning like some kind of village idiot. You Can’t Hurry Love follows this immediately, and is great too.
The crowd are as enthusiastic as 150 people can be on a cold Wednesday night in the midlands, yet Victoria is unimpressed. “You are very quiet tonight”, she says ,”and quite bland”. Well at least its not “Hellloooooooo Birminghaaammmmm”.

The whole thing goes really well with the band ploughing through a large chunk of their two albums. They are a fantastic band and the live renderings of tracks such as the cheery Sunbeams and the dreamy Chico are somehow more expansive and atmospheric than the recordings, even without all the extra orchestration.

The Concretes: Top songs, cracking banter

Victoria is knocking out more cracking banter as time goes on, “The buildings here are quite bad”, she states flatly before unleashing the least encouraging invitation possible for the audience to dance during Chosen One. I am starting to wonder if she went to the same PR school as this nation’s number one taciturn Swede (“Weeeell Garth, I thought Andy Johnson did a very interesting good match in the wide midfield, it is very interesting… Very interesting… Yes.”).

After a few more excellent songs and Victoria almost breaking a smile while turning down an invitation to Snobs, the band troop off leaving me wondering whether an encore is actually on the cards. Thankfully they do return at the crowd’s request, with singing drummer Lisa Milberg taking over vocal duties for Your Call. Victoria returns for an all action Lonely As Can Be which gets a bit frantic and noisy at the end, something appears to be happening on the floor, but I can’t see. Oh well.

As if to apologise to the more senior members of the audience for scaring them, they finish off with an all-singing Warm Night which even has your harsh, embittered correspondent la-la-la-ing along like a complete ponce at the end.

I leave with a spring in my step, thoroughly satisfied but completely mystified as to why there was hardly anyone there. Great for those that turned up, but a bit shit for the band I imagine. With luck the rest of the tour is better attended, so that hopefully The Concretes will come back this way again.

Some concrete links...

The Concretes in cyberspace

Their website, checkout the video for Chosen One, ooh its clever

Adem's Web Site

Online home of the industrious Adem, set ina retro-flash bathroom