Little Comets @ The Arts Club | Review

Little Comets have come a long way from playing M&S’ bread aisle, Metro carriages and storming lectures, but their jangly tones of northern indie have yet to falter, their concert in late October at Liverpool’s Arts Club was no exception.

The band played an eclectic mix of their past four studio albums, focussing especially on their first album for a period of the gig, in anticipation of their vinyl re-release of the live recording of this album. This included classics which haven’t been played live for a while such as, “One Night In October”, “Darling Alistair” and “Her Black Eyes”, which had the supportive crowd active throughout the whole set. The atmosphere of the gig felt very inclusive and welcoming as a whole, with the crowd feeling like a group of fans enjoying one of their favourite bands, rather than an audience.

Emotive lyrics such as, “All this protracted by a state, In which the poor conviction rate for rape, can often leave a woman feeling more at blame than able, to talk about violence tonight” from the track, “Violence Out Tonight”, were particularly poignant as this softer less, layered instrumental piece added a statement in the middle of an otherwise, uplifting, jangly indie-rock setlist.

The backbone of all that Little Comets has released, especially in recent years, has a political edge to it, meaning that fans are often supportive of everything released as it reflects their own agendas. “3 Minute Faltz” – Little Comets’ most recent single, is no exception. The fast-paced spoken piece, in Robert Coles very familiar northern twang vocals, about lower class struggles and the idea that things change but often we don’t even notice, “and sugar is the religion pile it into all our children”, was met with a huge applause and shouts of encouragement from the crowd, highlighting the need, even by this small space, for some form of change in this country.

“Dancing Song” was the final song played on Friday, this sticks to a tradition, as this is typically their last song played at every concert, stretching back to the late noughties. This track from their first album is very upbeat and has a repetitive bass and drum line which, as the title would suggest, made the whole crowd light up and dance along to finish off this positive, energy-filled night.

Little Comets once again, didn’t let Newcastle down.

You can listen to Little Comets here.

You can buy tickets for the remaining tour dates here.

Check out more Liverpool Guild Student Media music articles here.