Noah and the Whale at Brixton Academy

Noah and the Whale – Brixton Academy – 26 October 2011

Words by Jamie Reynolds / Photos by Marcus Maschwitz

It’s been a long time since Noah and the Whale began rocking our player but until now no one on our team had ever seen the band play live so tonight was something were were looking forward to for ages.

Arriving at Brixton Academy on it’s own is super exciting and until now there has never been a disappointing night spent in its presence … at least on our behalves. We were convinced that tonight we would another one of those really special nights.

Unfortunately we missed the support band making it just in time as NATW took to stage. It was immediately imminent that the band had put a lot of thought and effort into their stage setup tonight surrounding the stage with an influx of lighting at different heights all aimed directly at the band members resulting in an intimate setting regardless of the 5000 pax crowd (give or take).

The band open up tonight with Give A Little Love, in the most beautiful way ever, followed by Just Me Before We Met and the sound tonight was spot on perfect. They go through a collection of “greats” tonight including Life Is Life, Blue Skies, Our Window, L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. and Tonight’s The Kind Of Night, which they have broken into two perfectly named phases being the Romance Phase and the Good Times Phase … to be honest, the Good Times Phase was when it REALLY began for me.

Charlie is the perfect frontman coming across as cool as ever and is supported by the entire band 100% through every track. They play instruments that not many people could pull off as being cool but they do it well.

Everyone in the crowd has definitely had a great time … Tonight’s the Kind of Night … with hand waving and clapping constantly, mumbled singing, dancing and couples cuddling.

Definitely one of my favourite shows this year and I totally understand why the band has already sold out tickets for their show at The Royal Albert Hall in about six months time. If you can find any spare tickets or know a friend of a friend then we recommend that you head down because these guys are super fun … we know we will be trying.