With the 10th year of Liverpool Music Week well under way, it was the turn of acclaimed New York band The Antlers to mesmerise a sold out crowd at one of the city’s much loved music venues, The Kazimier.
The night opened with local band Cavalry who brought their brand of jangly guitars laid over sumptuous harmonies and acoustic crescendo driven numbers.
Followed by Billericay troubadour James Canty now based in Liverpool, Canty brings a mix of yearningly beautiful delicate solo acoustic numbers reminiscent of the Verve’s Richard Ashcroft and a more idiosyncratic organised chaos when joined by his band. Canty’s has a charm and wit on stage which should endear him to many an audience.
The unenviable task of being the penultimate support fell to Etches, a band who have recently garnered attention for their electronica synth pop sound. The band were highly polished and played with an air of confidence, coupled with upbeat melodies ensuring the crowd were fully warmed up for the head-liners.
The Antlers take to the stage to huge cheers and as the first notes of ‘Palaces’, a track from their newly-released album ‘Familiars’, rang out the room fell silent. No one can so delicately fill a room with swirling textures of sound quite like the slow building horns and vocals of The Antlers. It was made all the more stirring by the sheer intimacy of the Kazimier as the entire room hung on on every heart felt word.
After baring his soul to the audience frontman Peter Silberman returned to his coy self, thanking the audience and almost embarrassed by the response the band have received. A few songs in and he apologised for being under the weather but you wouldn’t know it as he gloriously exhibited his astounding vocal range on tracks ‘Hotel’ and ‘Don’t Want Love’.
Their fine form continued with the latest tracks from the critically acclaimed 2009 album ‘Hospice’. It was fitting that the night closed with ‘Epilogue’, a track from that album. Even with troublesome throat Silberman managed to make it through the heart breaking tale of the death of a relationship as the room fell silent, in awe.