Just when you thought Brudenell couldn’t get any more perfect it goes and gets another permanent live music space; The Community Room, meaning the games area can now (presumably) remain unmolested when the venue is double booked. Alas tonight the audience headcount is somewhat on the sparse side for London quintet My Sad Captains, surprising considering tonight’s absence of an admission charge for their closing date in a quartet of low key headline shows, with a further three planned for November supporting fine New York duo Widowspeak.
The inclusion of a brace of support acts in Dom Robinson and Reece Jacob add further mystification to tonight’s low attendance; one can perhaps sense the band’s disappointment at the turnout considering their recent Bella Union release, the self-produced ‘Sun Bridge’ their fourth long player in a thirteen-year existence, proves something of a revelation, particularly in light of recent line-up changes and will certainly make it onto top 50 albums lists for the year. Named after a trick of the light occurring on a still lake in bright sunshine, the album skilfully blends sprinklings of shoegaze, kitchen sink indie and krautrock, the result somewhere between Real Estate and Spiritualized yet leaving the listener guessing at every turn; the sprawling yet gloriously understated eight-minute tour de force of “Destination Memory” is arguably Captain’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties” moment.
From a live perspective, the quintet appeared to still be finding their feet in their current line-up, their audience remaining non committed in the early stages, the space between them and the stage feeling like a chasm at times, despite the languid pop from new album tracks ‘Curtain Calls’ and ‘Listen to Your Heart’ blending nicely with older material including 2011’s ‘Heavy Lifting’ not forgetting the soaring atmospheric guitar effects on 2014’s ‘Wide Open’.
Certainly worth checking out as every live performance will see them grow in confidence, one hoping the shimmering beauty of their new record will better come across once they’ve really gelled.