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Field Music are a band with a philosophy and sound straight from the allotment, dug up from the organic garden patch; to be brought to market here, under the bright lights of Mojo.
Liverpool Music Week had brought these Sunderland boys in for a festival of musical gluttony and merry making; and the Brewis brothers didn’t disappoint, carting out a barrow full of wholesome tunes for the masses.
The local Liverpool band House that Jack Built were the first support onto the Mojo stage for this Liverpool Music Week showcase, teasing out a setlst of guitar laden pop tracks.
The place was grossly under populated for the local lads who had an array of distinctive, head bopping tunes to call upon such as No Paper, Later Sweet and new single Pipeage.
Their sound is reminiscent of The Futureheads in their pomp but with more substance lyrically, the band jokily refer to themselves as a Lit Rock band on their Myspace with their influences heavily rooted in books.
Seasoned performers Voo were up next after a short interval and the lead singer entered wearing a dashing mauve jumper and the band looked ostensibly like a triumvirate of over tired school teachers. But their sound was far from tired, and they offered up a truly accomplished set.
Quite often it is a easy for three piece to get lost in the vacuum of their surroundings, lacking the fullness of sound that a second guitarist or percussionist can offer, but Voo avoided this pitfall expertly.
The trio were obviously a well oiled machine, performing with a cohesion that is rooted in years of jamming and living in each others pockets. Punchy bass lines and intricate guitar riffs rained down and they done a sterling job of whipping the crowd up for a real hootenanny.
Voo took a moment half way through their set asking the crowd to raise a glass and show some love to the Liverpool Music Week promoter Mike Deane, thanking him for all the support over the years and the people acquiesced with a warm round of applause.
Mojo was rocking by the time Field Music shimmied on from behind the red curtains which framed the freshly installed stage and the boys introduced themselves in their thick Geordie accents.
Lead singer David Brewis approached the mic and said: “Hi, we are Field Music and we are from Sunderland.”
This was greeted by a number of cat calls and footy shouts, this being after the Tyne-Weir derby in which Sunderland were trounced 5-1 by neighbours Newcastle.
Peter Brewis retorted and got a good laugh here saying: “It’s good we have come all the way to Merseyside to be blamed for our teams abject performance.”
Then the band opened up on the first track, with ambient sounds from the sea immersing into the climbing piano notes of Something Familiar.
Second song Rockist was one of the most memorable songs of the night, and was instantly recognisable having featured heavily in a Ford ad campaign on TV recently.
This particular track is so much more forceful and interesting than much of Field Music’s output, and it was easy to gage the crowds happiness when this track came on. A Boris Johnson look-a-like went bananas in the middle of the room before a friend had a quiet word and brought him crashing back down to earth.
Rockist was permeated brilliantly with an over dubbed, computerised refrain which repeated over and over through the song and the result was something quite hypnotic. The track had a more electronic feel live and was complemented by an awesome guitar riff from Peter, who wrote the song originally for his side project School of Language.
The Brewis brothers are both amiable, charismatic front men and they shared lead vocal duty through the course of the night, charming the crowd and also taking turns to play rhythm guitar, piano and percussion.
In Context and Them that do Nothing were both barn stormers on the night and allowed the other members of the band a share in some of the lime light. The bassist and lead guitarist were giving it beans on the other side of the stage to these tracks in particular.
A lot of gyrating and hip swivelling was going down, which obviously didn’t impress one young lady at the front who was caught on her phone. David Brewis took a breath mid song and asked her with a wry smile: “Checking your Facebook?.” Blushing, the girl promptly lashed her phone in her bag.
A musician in the vicinity declared Field Music’s stick man something else, and the curly haired drummer really was on top form here bashing out a number of complex drum lines adroitly. Not once did he look flustered or troubled, as he did his best to break the drum skin.
The band exited momentarily after playing the last song Tell Me Keep Me, but the Mojo crowd were having none of this and waited behind in hope of an encore, calling out, whistling and generally causing a commotion. The lads come out for one more and really ended the night with a bang, sending the Mojo crowd into reverie.
Another great show as part of the Liverpool Music Week calendar, and the Mojo free shows have all been a great success thus far. For more information on LMW check out the official site here:
http://www.liverpoolmusicweek.com/