‘Nothing beats the feeling of turning up at a venue to do a gig and not being on listings posters’ tweets Frankie Francis, of Frankie & The Heartstrings, summing up the theme of their recent performance at The Duchess.
Now, I love the band more than I should probably admit, and forgive me if this sounds biased, but when a band this good this play a gig, it should be packed with sweaty indie kids jumping up and down, not a half empty venue.
This, however, was in no way down to lack of talent or effort from the band. The night itself was brilliant, with the unassuming XFM playlist filling IC1s opening. Despite being billed as the second support act, they took on the ever challenging task of warming up a relatively sober crowd. The set evoked thoughts of The Rifles, from the singer’s semi-awkward mannerisms to the obviously Camden roots in the songs, particularly ‘Growing Up Going Down’ from the free CD I eagerly took.
Second on, though originally scheduled to play first, was a group of five local lads, Littlemores. Maybe it’s just the name, but I spent the entire set thinking of Little Man Tate with a much, much better singer. Despite the name, their set was very much like another of my minor obsessions, The Crookes. They blasted through their time with captivating Yorkshire vocals, and guitars that could’ve been written for any Smiths song, but the unequivocal highlight was a new one, ‘Two Up Two Down’.
By this point, I was hoping the crowd would have significantly grown, but unfortunately I was wrong. Frankie and co took to the stage and immediately stormed through ‘She Will Follow You’ and ‘Possibilities’. Dave Harper, the drummer lacking his somewhat trademark moustache, kept the band harmoniously together as they continued into fan favourite ‘Tender’, packed to the brim with youthful exuberance. After talking about how ‘bands make records for people to buy’, they continue straight into ‘Nothing Our Way’, almost indicative of the night.
The Beach Boys sounding ‘Photograph’ was next, which would not sound out of place in a Cocktail bar. The rest of the band lent a hand with the singing here, resulting in a gleeful celebration of youthful summers. With no pause, the band burst into first album single, ‘Ungrateful’, a more contemplative song about a failing relationship, followed by new single ‘That Girl, That Scene’ and ‘Invitation’, building the pace back up as they neared the end of the set.
The band finished their final three songs, beginning with the openly honest tale of heartbreak, ‘First Boy’, in which Francis’ stunning vocal talents carried the song perfectly. ‘Hunger’, “the song from the Dominoes advert”, gained the biggest audience interaction of the night, with beautifully out of key crowd singing, before they closed with second album anthem ‘Scratches’ without an encore.
Francis’ excellent stage presence combining the flamboyancy of notorious extrovert, Jonny Pierce (The Drums) with the same manner of sincerity of friend of the band, Paul Smith (Maximo Park), resulting in a captivating performance, parading around the stage like a peacock. This is, however, more than a one man band; the guitarists maintained the exuberant tones of the first album, as well as holding together the more honest songs from the second. Combined, this should be enough to propel them into the ears of every NME reader everywhere, and I’m hoping there’s still time. The set itself was without fault, and was exactly why I love this kind of music, but the night a stark reminder of how hard it is for a band to survive.