Live
White Lies
Concorde 2, Brighton
January 31 2019
Words/Pictures: Steve Willcox
A cold winter's night is the perfect timing for a bit of euphoric post-electronic indie. It’s a sold out gig tonight with White Lies promoting their new and fifth studio album, ‘Five’. A huge cheer erupts as the band come on, and vocalist Harry McVeigh makes his way into ‘Time To Give’: With just a single note on the keyboards and a hazy blue light surrounding him, the 80s style synths and beats prevail. Jack Brown’s drums introduce 2009’s ‘Farewell To The Fairground’, with its infectious rhythm beginning to settle the band into the set as much as it encourages the crowd, as it's familiarity brings singalong out front to "Keep on running / There’s no place like home".
'Finish Line' (described by lyricist and bass player Charles Cave as "a simple song about a young couple’s break-up negotiations”) and the melancholy ‘There Goes Our Love’, both shine through upbeat music juxtaposed with composed vocal delivery. Latest single, the synth-laden ‘Tokyo’, seems slower live than compared to the recorded version, but it works, all thanks to Cave’s pumping basslines and keyboardist Tommy Bowen finding those elusive 80s electronic sounds. Harry tells the room how it seems forever since they wrote the new song ‘Kick Me’, which has a dark brooding bass sound that gels nicely with some haunting synths and Harry’s dour vocals that echo across the venue.
This then leads into their 2009 debut hit ‘Unfinished Business’ with it’s slow bass which revolves into an anthemic pop song. ‘Death’ whips the audience into a frenzy with arms punching the air and people bouncing up and down chanting the lyrics back to them. Fan favourite ‘Bigger Than Us’ sends its bass growling like a beast through the crowd like a hungry wolf, and receives the biggest audience participation so far.
For the three song encore, Harry positions himself at the keyboards, and while the rest of the band take a breather, he plays ‘Change’ as an acoustic solo. It is powerful and heartfelt, a song about lost love and the emotional mental struggle, and it stills the room as one and all listen, enrapt. ‘To Lose Your Life’ gets the full band treatment; its shout out chorus and amps turning up the heat to 11. The slow, moody affair of ‘Fire and Wings’ closes the show with a fusion of dark synths that combine with thrashing guitars as draws to its final note. The crowd leave into a snow blizzard outside, yet White Lies seem to have knocked off the chill for everyone.
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