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On a wet Thursday night in a deserted Manchester city centre, down in the bowels an underground pub, four Canadians were preparing to play.
Purple Revolver took up position amongst the stream-lined haircuts, the plastered students, the cuddling couples and the men in overcoats who hang around the edges like self appointed security men.
All squeezed into this petite venue like smokers in the kitchen at a house party, Tokyo Police Club enter from the side ready to rock the casbah for the next hour or so. The lads were in Manchester as part of their UK tour to promote their new album, Champs.
Playing a mixture of new and old songs the small room is immediately filled with a burst of pop sunshine, one short and sweet minute after the other.
The boyish charm of david Monk’s lyrics combined with catchy melodies and up tempo beats makes a miserable Thursday a lot more enjoyable, it even allows you to think of the summer of festivals ahead and how much better this would be if it was in a field cider in hand with and lots of room to jump up and down like a student on spring break.
Due to the limited space however, snoozers are losers at this gig and the good specs are snaffled up early on. After three position adjustments we had to resettle at the back of the room.
We didn’t want to continue with the wet theme and get soaked with various alcoholic refreshments, which were flying around all over the place, drowning everyone under their trajectory.
Highlight of the night had to be the spectacular track Tessellate, with it’s catchy hooks delivered by Dave Monks, it is pushed on to another level by the breezy guitar work and thumping drums which sent the crowd into overdrive.
There wasn’t much room for dancing but there’s room aplenty for lip synching which seems to be getting a rigorous outing. A great nucleus of fans at the front cleared their throats for a number of sing alongs after Tessellate, including Your English is Good and In a Cave.
But it is evident early on, this is the kind of music that needs to be aired in the open and the small room seems to stifle the sound. Even though TPC are fighting a losing battle with sound quality it doesn’t stop them giving it some real heart and soul.
The fans seem pleased and we have put a note in the diary to definitely try and catch TPC again, hopefully this time at a venue that can hold the bouncing joy that their music brings.
If you like The Strokes, Two Door Cinema Club and We Are Scientist you’ll love Tokyo Police Club, catch them if you want to be cheered up.