A small select witnessed a valuable performance from The Walkmen on Wednesday night at Birmingham’s Barfly.  They were utterly convincing from the outset, combining the ghostly undertone of their slower material with controlled and professional musicianship.  This set reiterated their movement away from a punk fuelled past (and the success of ‘The Rat’), and showed them to be a far more controlled collective.  Perhaps married life and New York suburbia has changed them as a group and as individuals, with positive results.  Now they have assumed attributes of early Pavement, and the packed out venue reiterates their value as cult figures that have the potential to enrapture crowds wherever they go.

Each member (apart from lead singer Hamilton) took to the stage donned in inconspicuous knitwear and slacks – get up which concealed the expressive music that would follow.  The first part was dedicated to new material, a special treat considering how few shows they are doing in this part of the world this year.  It infected the bulging crowd when they realised Matt Berrick’s precise drumming would propel the sound beyond expectations.  The numbers shifted between the lonely despair and frustration of ‘On the Water’ to the harmonic perfection of ‘In the New Year’, and each time the direction changed we followed suit, lamenting with the slower material and bouncing with the faster.  Hamilton’s performance was professional and convincing.  With the guitar in hand he balanced the more experimental efforts of the band, tying the movement of the sound together with constantly controlled rhythm.  He particularly excelled when he was given the chance to express his similarity to Bob Dylan on the microphone, something he played off against a darker side that was really refreshing.  

As the gig progressed, most of the crowd knew that they were in the presence of a superior movement.  There were no quirks to undermine them, instead The Walkmen stayed true to the strengths that make their recent album You & Me a success.  ‘Four Provinces’ was probably the highlight, because the quality of the performance summed up the whole evening: Unpretentious and engaging.  This performance really stands out as a marker, and justifies their place supporting the Kings of Leon US tour this summer.

Jon Watson