inulro | House of Love!

Well, that was fun. Anyone who thinks a crowd of aging goths isn't a pretty sight hasn't seen a room full of aging indie fans. More beige than I see in the office most days. The band, however, have aged very well.

They opened with I love you too much, which sounded much like the CD, but with added bitterness. With Chadwick's trademark scoul, everything live has added anger. The first half of the gig was an even split between old and new material. They did "Hope", which made me happy. It's harder to tell the old material from the new live, except of course that the crowd got more excited about the old stuff.

It was all nice & good but pretty pedestrian and they didn't hit their stride until Christine, about halfway through the set. From there on in it was intense and the live versions differed significantly from the recordings, but the sound quality went downhill. Remember how I said that I don't know why I love you isn't as good as I thought? Live, it was. They did a stunning rendition of Kit Carter from the new album, and closed the main set with a superb (and superbly long) version of Love in a car.

50_ft_queenie will be happy to hear that they did Destroy the Heart as one of the encores. (If I had your number programmed into my phone, I would have been tempted to call you up & play it at you). Predictably (they didn't open with it), Shine On was the final encore.

I can't remember the whole set list - I'm surprised I remember as much as I do. I was surprised by some of the old numbers they picked, but pleasantly so.

The Fleece is not my favourite venue. We got there early and grabbed the only seating (a table pushed against the back wall). This came in useful when the band came on stage - I just stood up on it and had an excellent view. Initially I'd had delusions of going down to the front, but the place was too packed for that to be viable. If it wasn't sold out, it was pretty close.

Sleep now.