Wind on two years and after many storming festival sets, the release of their first album and Radio 1 airplay, the band are now a different proposition. Clearly they are much bigger than a tiny room in St Albans. Tonight’s gig proved that. Playing a sell-out Kentish Town Forum, the two lads are in no way phased by their top of the bill status. Showing the same attitude they showed in St Albans, they had the crowd bouncing right from the off with a very high energy set that left the crowd wanting more.

Support on the evening was from Spring King and Wonk Unit.

Wonk Unit

Spring King

Support was from Big Scary who I thought were one of the blandest bands I’ve seen all year.

The duo White Miles had the unenviable task of supporting the Eagles, but they were more than up to the task, putting in an excellent high energy show.

The first support act was Feverist who’s lead singer appeared to be pissed. Nice one. Big stage. Get pissed. If he wasn’t, then he appeared to be aping that idiot Pete Doherty with lazy slurred vocals. I really didn’t like this band.

Tonight, they were definitely on form. Nigel was in talkative mood which is always a good sign. Unusually, they concentrated on a lot of material of their more recent albums and I really enjoyed hearing some of the less played songs

Support was from a folk group called Sonnenberg.

The video was recorded at the Forum gig I attended last year. I noted at the time how fleshed out ‘Fuckers’ had become. I have to admit the camera people annoyed me a little. But when they produced a video like this, all’s forgiven.

Before the gig I was concerned that the larger venue would undermine their intensity. I usually prefer to see bands in small venues. But I was so wrong. Instead the large space simply increased their power. Jehnny owned the stage in a way I didn’t expect her to. Gemma’s guitar’s were stunning and Fay and Ayse’s thumbing bass and drums kept everything motoring. Also some of their material, such as Fuckers had been significantly fleshed out since I last saw them. They even converted me to the ‘weak’ song on their debut album, Marshall Dear with Jenny on the piano.

Off course, nothing is left to chance. Everything from the stunning stark lighting, to their black and white dress, is designed to intensify their performances. The large space just seems to give them more ideas. It’s clear they’re control freaks when it comes to how they are perceived, but when you have a clear artistic vision of where you want your band to be and the talent to get there, that’s not a bad thing and last night was proof to me that this band have everything. If I had any doubts that big was better. Last night proved me wrong.

My only disappointment was that ‘Flying to Berlin’ was left off the set list. I suspect this was simply due to timings as there were a few delays for technical issues. But I think I can live with that.

Support from A Dead Forest Index

Robert Plant

Robert Plant