Noah And The Whale performed an intimate acoustic set in a warehouse last night (May 8).
Prior to the gig, fanclub members and competition winners queued outside the studio in Hackney, east London, where the band filmed the 30-minute short film which accompanies their fourth album ‘Heart Of Nowhere’. The film, co-written by the band’s frontman Charlie Fink and rising screenwriter Charlotte Colbert, depicts a future dystopia where teenagers are rounded up and detained in coma-like states before having their minds erased, ready for adulthood.
For last night’s performance, conditions of the film were recreated, complete with mock processing on the way in, and security staff bellowing orders with megaphones. The crowd were also given white jumpsuits to wear, similar to those seen in the film.
There was a screening of the film, which stars Bill Milner, Tony Regbo and Josh Bolt as fictional band The Nuclear Toads, who escape the processing camp in order to play one final gig. Noah And The Whale also make cameos.
After the screening, the band performed the title track, ‘Lifetime’ and ‘Not Too Late’ from their fourth album, ‘Heart Of Nowhere’, as well songs from their previous three albums ‘Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down’, ‘The First Days Of Spring’ and ‘Last Night On Earth’.
Speaking to NME, Charlie Fink said: “I loved playing to a crowd all wearing jumpsuits. There was a unifying effect, I think, and I’d like to know what someone just walking in by mistake might think was happening. It looked like the meeting of a cult. Don’t drink the Kool Aid, you know?”
He then went on to talk about the band’s current tour, which has seen them perform in theatres all over the country, including a four-consecutive-Sunday residency at London’s Palace Theatre, saying a seated show, broken up by a film screening and interval, added a new layer of excitement for all involved.
“It was intimidating at first,” he said. “That’s mainly down to the new setting, but since then it’s been really fun to show these different sides to what we do; an acoustic set, the film, then an electric set. It’s nerve-wracking to have this much attention on us. When you’re playing an Academy somewhere, people are drinking with their mates and there’s a distraction, but in theatres that isn’t there.”
He continued: “It’s interesting to give people a show they might not have been to before. We’re trying to make our shows comfier and comfier. We did gigs in regular venue, now theatres… I think our next tour will be in a DFS showroom. The tour after might be like Inception where we just play to people in their dreams and they don’t even have to get out of bed.”
Noah And The Whale played:
‘Heart Of Nowhere’
‘Tonight’s The Kind Of Night’
‘Blue Skies’
‘Lifetime’
‘Give A Little Love’
‘LIFEGOESON’
‘Not Too Late’