Due to the tiny stage of Leadmill’s smaller room, ERLAND & THE CARNIVAL are almost set up in a perfect circle. There’s a ferocious amount of eye contact between the band. Erland Cooper is a captivating front man, uncomfortably intense one moment, warm and approachable the next. When he steps back a few paces off the microphone, threatening to tear the strings from his guitar, the rest of his band seem to be caught in an orbit, physically feeding off his energy. His guitarist is Simon Tong, a man who has played with Blur and The Verve. However tonight, Tong is as lost in Erland Cooper’s colossal force as everyone else in the room. He looks like Ian Curtis if he could handle himself in a fight.
Following a mesmerising solo set by HANNAH PEEL, where instead of hearing a pin drop you could probably listen to it falling through the air, Erland & The Carnival take to the stage. Cooper announces that his band have released a new album called 'Nightingale' (just over a year since their eponymous debut) and that they’re going to play some songs from it. He mutters “thanks for your support”, and then they’re off.
While they’re roots are certainly in the British folk tradition, the Joe Meek sci-fi productions are simply otherworldly. Not to get too bogged down with modern comparisons but if The Coral beat up Mumford & Sons and explained why everything they were doing was wrong, they’d hopefully end up sounding like this. Tong’s guitar sounds like heart broken whale songs and it’s played with such skill that he lifts Cooper’s songs to transcendental levels. While the music can be dark, brooding and mysterious, the energy levels are always high. When he’s not singing Cooper cradles his guitar and twists back and forth, looking like a gunman unsure of whether to take everyone out or turn on himself.
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The sheer release of emotion is incredibly uplifting. Recent single 'Map of the Englishman' sounds like Blue Monday played by Bob Dylan circa 1966. After a magnificent opening twenty minutes, which sees Hannah Peel return to the stage on backing vocals, Cooper inexplicably states that he thinks the band are now “warmed up”. Following that they are incredible. First album track 'Trouble in Mind' with its chorus “I didn’t mean to disappoint you, I’m just sorry that I had to” gets a response so loud you’d think the crowd was at least three times the size it is.
After an hour they encore with reworked folk standard 'The Derby Ram' that sees Cooper euphorically screaming at his drummer and dancing like an inebriated Thom Yorke. They end with the evil fairground pop of 'You Don't Have to Be Lonely', thank the crowd for “being really nice to us”, salute and leave the stage. Everyone looks like they haven’t blinked for the entire set.
Erland & The Carnival are one of the few bands who are taking an old template and are pushing it somewhere thrilling. But it’s not just for the beard-strokers. The immediacy of the song writing and their enthralling live show makes them one of the most exciting bands in a long time.
Download a free song from the Erland & The Carnvival website
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