Summer Camp + Frankie & The Heartstrings The Deaf Institute, Manchester 5/10/10
4/5
By: Rachel Bolland
Co-headline tours are a funny thing. On paper the two bands are equal but inevitably one will always fall into the supporting slot. On this co-headline jaunt, made up of two bands who have both had huge amounts of hype surrounding them, Frankie & the Heartstrings pipped Summer Camp to the top spot on the bill.
However, when Summer Camp take to the stage at the Deaf Institute, one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever been to, it is not with the air of a support band. The pair, quite rightly, perform like the gig is just about them, providing the crowd with the charm, wit and joy that defined their debut EP Young. The pairing of Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley works rather perfectly. Sankey, previously editor of Platform and once an NME scribe, brings the humour and personality that was characteristic of her writing to her music, a large part of what makes their craft such a triumph. This, coupled with Warmsley’s song-writing talent already proven on his two solo albums, results in tunes that are evocative of every day emotions, particularly those felt during those awkward teenage years, but with an air of sophistication that stops them becoming banal love songs.
The duo open with a truncated, adapted version of ‘Why Don’t You Stay’, one much more stripped back than it is on record, providing the perfect introduction to the set. This runs seamlessly into ‘Was It Worth It?’, the embittered break up song contrasting perfectly with the quiet opener. Very rarely is there a band whose songs each possess such personality and flair, with each song sounding as equally brilliant on its own as it does within the set as a whole. Of course, with Summer Camp it’s about the whole package, the band’s identity having been shrouded in mystery when they first uploaded ‘Ghost Train’ to MySpace, providing only a few grainy 1970s photos as clues.
They’ve stuck with this, a series of vintage photos - an ever growing collection of Sankey’s - providing the perfect backdrop to their own brand of slightly eerie dream pop, complimenting the music but not proving too much of a distraction even for me and my shockingly short attention span. The band close their set with current single ‘Round The Moon’ which, in my opinion, ably sums up everything about them. Their music is charming, interesting and unique and their live show is no different, both performers pouring so much of themselves into what they’re doing that it feels like you’ve witnessed something really special.
After the joy that was Summer Camp came Frankie & the Heartstrings. Despite the fact that they hadn’t exactly been my main priority at the show, I found myself dancing around like a 14 year old at my first gig. The band’s eponymous frontman managed to find a perfect balance between being incredibly charismatic, admittedly with a slight arrogance, but without being off-putting. He has his stage banter down to a fine art and provided an engaging focal point.
The band aren’t just a frontman though, their songs drawing the crowd in and making the gig ridiculously fun, even if you weren’t aware of their material before with current single ‘Ungrateful’ providing a dizzying high point. A sure-fire hit for the 2011 festival season, Frankie and the Heartstrings have the potential to move crowds and start deafening singalongs in the same way that Two Door Cinema Club or Mystery Jets do now.
Despite not having arrived to see them, I left having completely fallen in love with Frankie’s upbeat, engaging indie pop. Carry on this way and they’ll have accumulated an army of fans by this time next year.
Artists in this article: Summer Camp, Frankie and the Heartstrings
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