REVIEW – The Feeling at Liquid Room

March 13, 2014 8:49 pm

Remember ‘Fill My Little World’, ‘Sewn’ and ‘Love It When You Call’? The Feeling wrote those, and no they haven’t disappeared into the big black hole of music. In fact, the band released their fourth album, Boy Cried Wolf, to very positive reviews late last year. Predictably the band played a large selection of material from the new album; however their gig at the Liquid Room proved that the praiseworthy critical response for the new album wasn’t just a fluke.

A lot of people attend gigs to listen to the live version of the hits and that is understandable. The audience aren’t interested in a band plugging their new album just to increase album sales. Usually a band would save all their hits, or at least the majority of them, until the end of the show to force attendees to stay. Somehow it wasn’t like that.

It is the second UK leg of their Boy Cried Wolf tour . The album has been out for six months now, which has allowed fans and casual listeners to become familiar with The Feeling’s new music. Members of the crowd – some near the back of the venue – sang along to new songs such as ‘Rescue’, ‘Fall Like Rain’ and ‘Boy Cried Wolf’, generally giving the songs a welcoming reception. For obvious reasons, the ‘hits’, known as the three songs already mentioned at the beginning, were received with jubilation.

The band looked strangely anxious at the beginning during ‘Boy Cried Wolf’ which may have been down a lack of gig practice. As soon as ‘Fill My Little World’ started though they were back in their comfort zone with admirable charisma. The performance was incredibly tight and showed that their couple of months away from the limelight has done them good.

Maybe there are signs that suggest The Feeling haven’t quite moved on from 2005. Yes, their music is more compelling, less intentionally commercial sounding and more convincingly structured, but with the average age of 35 in the band it’s painful to watch a live act broadly detail their merchandise, perform a selection of undeveloped covers mashed into a time-wasting melody and over-experiment with the lights to the point where it becomes like an EDM show.

The only difference between the fame of their first two albums and now is that they are playing significantly smaller venues, which fits their intimate approach to performing and grabs the audience throughout. It may be unfortunate that they have had to resort to less hefty venues after the commercial failure of Together We Were Made, but there is a hint in The Feeling’s music and live act that suggests they may move up to some considerable success. Not as considerable as their heyday, which is long gone, but to the point where people are actually taking them seriously again as an excitable act.