14th
Athlete | Live Review
After releasing their second album Tourist, Athlete somewhat fell-off the radar. The release of their third album, Beyond the Neighbourhood, proved to be as low-key as the songs, and the band members having blossoming young families has possibly made them take a step back from music. Now signed to Fiction records and with a huge UK tour ahead of them, Athlete are as popular as ever.
See as published at NG-Magazine.com
Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms is a cosy venue at the best of times, but never have I seen it quite so busy. The band are in no way lacking support, and they’re more than able to keep the crowd happy. Athlete are road testing some of the new material from their fourth album Black Swan. Despite this, there were still plenty of familiar tunes, and even the more obscure album tracks had the audience singing along.
That’s perhaps what Athlete are best at doing: skilfully crafting songs which you can belt out at the top of your voice, but just as easily sing sitting round a camp fire. It’s live renditions of these songs that really bring them to life, their studio-mixed radio edits not doing the songs justice for what they achieve on stage.
The band weren’t called back on stage for an encore by the usual method of shouting, jeering and grabbing another watery lager from the bar. At the Rescue Rooms they came back to hundreds of people all singing together. That’s what makes an Athlete gig special.
The gig finishes with a three-track encore, and a massively uplifting rendition of Wires. This had the entire audience waving their hands in the air, singing and hugging each other. It might sound like the end to a mediocre Hollywood rom-com, but Athlete have written songs that seem to strike a genuine chord with people, and the people are only too happy to let them know.
Video interview with Joel and Steve from Athlete coming shortly, watch this space!
