Athlete Live Review - City Life, July 2009

Athlete

By Stuart Holmes | Mon, 06 July, 2009

IN what was surely an ideal end to the weekend for them, devoted fans of Athlete were treated to an intimate performance at the Ruby Lounge last night.

After a decade together as a band, which has resulted in three successful albums to date, they return to the live scene once more, ahead of their fourth album, Black Swan, which is due for release next month.

Whilst many gigs of this nature have a tendency to focus largely on new material, Athlete instead treat the good natured audience to a gig comprising mainly of their greatest hits, with only a handful of new tracks being showcased.

Needless to say, the packed-out crowd respond well to this and the band appear to resultantly excel in their performance.

They ease into proceedings with their forthcoming single Superhuman Touch before playing You Got The Style from their debut album, which induces the first of many mass sing-a-longs.

Half Light continues the band's strong start, and is furthered by an extended version of Shake Those Windows, which begins with the soft vocals of lead singer Joel Pott, before building up to a crescendo of noise in its finale.

Hurricane

Their most recent album, Beyond The Neighbourhood, receives coverage with Hurricane and Flying Over Bus Stops, but it is material from their debut, and their breakthrough album Tourist that receive the greatest preference this evening.

New songs such as Black Swan Song and Magical Mistakes sound pleasant and typical of the band's sound, but are lost slightly amongst the commotion of people taking the opportunity to re-quench their thirst in the warm venue.

The attention of any unsettled attendees is soon recaptured as Tourist commences, however, which - like many of Athlete's songs - features a simplistic but well-constructed and effective chorus. The same is also true of One Million and Westside, which follow shortly afterwards.

Impressive finale

The finale of the main set includes an impressive performance of Twenty Four Hours, which sounds somewhat epic, and highlights the band's perfected ability in 'rise and fall' songwriting.

This is followed by The Getaway, from the new album, which ends with a melodic chant that the crowd continue in strong voice during the band's absence before their inevitable return to the stage.

El Salvador provides the greatest crowd participation of the night so far, but is soon beaten when the Ivor Novello Award-winning Wires concludes the encore, with Pott singing with genuine emotion, and the audience graciously following suit.

Tonight's performance is an indisputable success for Athlete. They are an experienced act who know where their strengths lie, and consequently play to them well, which results in a memorable evening for all involved.