LAU

Live Review

Glee Club, Birmingham

There may only be three members to the award-winning Lau but you certainly get a full sound from the trio once they get going, which they did right from the first number.

Martin Green, Chris Drever and Aidan O'Rourke who are Lau
photo by Dougie Coulter

They opened with The Burrian, from their album Race the Loser, which had all the hallmarks of a traditional instrumental with East Anglian, Martin Green on piano accordion, and Scots, Chris Drever on guitars and Aidan O’Rourke on fiddle.
The track then slid into what was nearly a jamming session with the occasional jazz undertone.
Saint Monday, another track from the album, followed and was a much softer piece where Drever introduced his distinctively mellow, slightly melancholic voice into the proceedings.
His composition Horizontigo then began with a nice mellow acoustic opening which had a slow, sombre sound balanced perfectly between the accordion and fiddle and there was almost a spaghetti western/Spanish-style undertone about it.

Once again though it allowed them to play with the sounds they created and they picked it up midway with a stronger beat that gradually built to a crescendo.
Throwing Pennies brought Drever back into the proceedings and he sang to a clopping backing track which gave it an emotive and evocative quality.

Aidan O'Rourke

It was O'Rourke who brought the soft fiddle sound in for Torsa but it wasn’t long before the picture of music was played with wider brushstrokes building up to move in to a more traditional jig sound which took it to a new level before peaking and the musicians bringing it back down for a gentler finish.
The audience was also treated to Far From Portland, The Bird that Winds the Spring and Save the Bees heading towards the end of the concert with Midnight Feast.