Bens Brother, A Fine Frenzy - Live

 

“It looks like a bag of chips” says my companion (or something like that) as we turn up outside the N1 Centre, a square and uninspired design desert that houses The Carling Islington Academy, home for tonight’s notebook scratching. After two hours stuck on Marylebone Road we’re late and we walk in as A Fine Frenzy walk on stage.   

A Fine Frenzy are more used to headline slots these days having just toured their first in the States, so some slightly dodgy sound, too much kit to trip over onstage and a talkative audience don’t do them any favours. You get to feeling we’re not seeing them at their best.

None the less, they manage to turn in an often mesmerising performance with a stripped back and lean live sound that has me thinking of All About Eve and Alanis Morissette (in her cool moments). Ashes & Wine is entrancingly raw, The Minnow and the Trout ( a song about fishes and birds apparently) tender and heartfelt and album opener Come On, Come Out makes you long for summer lounging.

There are a couple of disappointments though. Almost Lover is not stripped back enough. Cluttered with keyboard belches and unnecessary guitar fiddles the sadness and sorrow of the original falls away and a chance to enrapture Ben’s Mates is lost. Equally, new song What I Wouldn’t Do (I think?) is an unexpected bouncy kind of Irish jig with shades of Erasure’s A Little Respect. Although clearly a necessary yawn and stretch for A Fine Frenzy it just doesn’t cut it and has me fearing (reluctantly) the dreaded second album.

When Alison Sudol leaves the safety of the piano my companion points out his favourite feature of A Fine Frenzy, and I know where he’s coming from, but although she is achingly beautiful Alison Sudol is also awkward, a self confessed “klutzy” girl who dances a little like Snoopy. She has a strange habit of laughing as she sings as if sharing a joke with unseen friends and seems to leave her own world only mometarily between songs to say "hi" and "thanks". It strangely mesmeric, like watching somebody’s lips move as they read, or a cat tapping a mirror.

Bens Brother are also, I guess, a bit like A Fine Frenzy’s older brother, all confidence and grown up songs. Strangely, they’re also one person too, in this case Jamie Hartman, who takes to the stage alone for a perfect Time which leaves the crowd in stunned silence. It’s an impressive start to the set, showcasing Jamie’s terrific treacle and sandpaper voice and undoubted song writing prowess, and incidentally demonstrating where Almost Lover should have landed.

After the cheers subside the rest of the band stride on stage to deliver flawless versions of Find Me An Angel, Home, Bad Dream and Stuttering to an equally rapturous reception, but things go abruptly downhill at this point. These four 'others’ have an effect similar to an extra safe condom, adding such a thick layer of caution all intimacy is smothered and you might as well not bother. Don’t get me wrong these chaps are great at what they do, but the arrangements are so ordinary and predictable they destroy what are otherwise terrific songs and leave us with Ben’s Dad instead of his brother, whose not nearly as interesting and doesn't go out anymore (if you follow me).

The set is peppered with Jamie solo numbers including the Ivor Novello nominated ‘Let Me Out’ and they’re the saving grace of the night. In fact it makes me wonder if Jamie shouldn’t save himself a bob or two on session musicians and roadies, or at least hook up with a producer who can take these gems (for that they are) to a place of stardust, poetry and beating hearts rather than their current domain, a brown, convenience shopping centre that looks a little like a bag of chips.

Dan MuHead

Get A Fine Frenzy One Cell In The Sea from Play.com or iTunes

Get Ben's Brother Beta Male Fairytales from Play.com or iTunes

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