Idlewild, Sons & Daughters @ Cornhill Exchange, Brighton
April 2005
The first of 5 gigs has arrived and its the turn of the recently voted 3rd best scottish band of all time Idlewild taking to the Brighton stage. This tour has been very poor for the guys as most gigs are being moved to smaller venues, Brighton included. Instead of the 1200 Dome its has been moved to the 700 capacity Cornhill Exchange next door. After reading reviews of their warm up band Sons and Daughters (from Glasgow strangely) i was apprehensive as none were too good. Still got there just in time to grab a beer and see their set. Was extremely strange and varied set with out of tune vocals from the female lead singer and country and western influenced melodies, we could well have been watching a John Wayne in a Karaoke competition. These tracks, however strange, were oddly compelling and easy to listen to.
Idlewild started on three back to back tracks from their slightly poppier latest album, these were all solid live performances, a vast improvement on the albums more downbeat tones. They then ploughed straight into Modern way of letting go and the crowd went nuts. They continued sublimely playing gems such as Rosability, When i Argue i see Shapes, American English… The vocal performance was probably the best i’ve heard yet, strong and unique and perfectly aligned with the bands sound. The new songs were starting to make sense tho, as played live took a slightly more rockier edge and were excellent.
They finally came to the end of their set with the classic ‘You held the world in your arms’ in typically rousing fashion. I really enjoyed Idlewild and strangely liked sons and daughters, even though i couldn’t tell you why (I think it was their track which give or take a few lyrics could so have been a Rawhide!:)
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