Les Chroniques de Natha: Miles Kane - Ancienne Belgique (26/10/2013) ENGLISH

First thing: sometimes you may know that you'll have a great night and yet you can still be surprised… Although surprised is a nice euphemism. Being punched in the face may be the exact thing that happened to me…

I also discovered a quite interesting few new sounds that are directly connected to Miles Kane. If you can't wait to find out what it's all about, just press Ctrl and F on your keypad, type "talented guys like these", press enter and start reading there… If you want to know how it is to attend a Miles Kane show, then just keep reading…

I had listened to both Miles Kane's albums and thought they were definitely top albums. These days, most of the time, you only find 2 or 3 good tracks in an album. Miles Kane managed to provide 12 great songs in his first album "Colour of the Trap", back in 2011. And came back in 2013 with "Don't Forget Who You Are", which contains another 14 musical jewels… Doesn't happen that much often so it's definitely worth to be noted…
I also read many times and almost everywhere that the Merseyside native is one of the finest musicians of his generation. Lucky me, I was at the Ancienne Belgique Saturday and saw that with my own eyes…

Stage in darkness. Red and white stroboscopic lights… The audience already know Mister Miles and his four musician friends are about to show up and clap to encourage them... and here they come. So stylishly British for Mister Kane who enters the stage with black and white squared pants! Can't miss him, even from where I stand, AKA first floor balcony…

The band starts playing "Bombshells". Miles Kane is standing in the middle of the stage. On his left, bassist Phil Anderson; on his right rhythm guitarist George Moran. Behind him, standing slightly higher than the front stage musicians, Jay Sharrock on the drums and Ben Parsons on the keyboards. "Bombshells" is a fine piece to start the show, to put the audience in the mood for the evening… An evening that will be filled with great energy. All the time. Exponential energy as the show goes by, I might even say…

The band starts playing "You're Gonna Get It", out of Miles' second album and one of my personal favorites. Hard to stay calm while listening to that one. Apparently hard to stay calm while playing it as well as all musicians on stage move to the rhythm of the song…

When they start playing "Taking Over", it only takes half a second for the audience to react and clap in rhythm. On that one, there's an obvious thing that comes to my mind: we all know an artist can hardly be alone on a stage and needs other musicians who forms his "band". In Miles Kane's case, the guys around him are – to me – some of the "best of the best" I've seen… But I'll tell you more about them later…

Another obvious thing is that the people in the crowd didn't all came here by accident: the audience won't even let Miles sing the "black and white" part of his "Rearrange" song alone. Probably realizing that the people in front of him knew more of the lyrics, he invites them to sing the chorus, even pushing them to sing louder. For one split second, the British singer stand in front of his microphone in a Liam Gallagher-pose that made me smile and remember he's an Oasis and Beady Eye fan. Amazing!

I notice a change of guitar for Moran, who played the previous song with his beautiful Gretsch duo jet G6128T and who now has a Gibson SG in his hands. He already played with it earlier in the show and those of you who know me well can imagine my reaction when I recognize the "horny" guitar. I may not be a musician but I react like the dog of Pavlov' experiment every time I see that damn guitar. Naaaaah… not drool: just pointing my finger at the guitar with bright smile and stars in the eyes and telling my friends "Isn't it beautiful??". I definitely need a cure…

They start playing "What Condition Am I In?"… great track that keeps the energy in the place. What's good in Miles Kane's music is that he knows how to put things together to make a song good for your ears. In many of his songs, you won't find never-ending guitar solos that I find exhausting most of the time: he has great guitar riffs in his songs that definitely define them and make them more likeable. If you manage to split the different instrument parts of one of his song in your mind, you can definitely and fully appreciate the amount of work behind it.
No exhausting guitar solo for Miles Kane. A few, not too long. And damn effective! And awesome guitar riffs. Like in "What Condition Am I In?"

Stage lights fades and the guys are now only shadows on a stage, surrounded by red lights. They play in darkness until Miles shouts "1, 2, 3, 4" and they all start singing the Lala's of "Quicksand". When Miles Kane shouts at his audience that he wants to see its hands, it barely takes a second before most of the crowd raises all hands. At one point, they all stop playing to let Kane asks everyone to clap before getting back to music notes… Done deal, I think Miles Kane is a THE Crowd Master tonight!

"Better Than That" is also one of those songs that I liked from the very start and I'm not disappointed with the result once played on a live set. Full of energy, great complicity between the guys on stage… I realize that these five guys are right where they belong. Some people of my entourage may say it lacks of that "rock and rroooooooooooool" attitude, I say I have in front of my eyes a very professional team that knows how to make me want to move and dance! And it works… not only with me. People on the balcony in front of me are dancing. People above, in the pit, are dancing. And more importantly, it seems like everyone is having fun tonight: the crowd as much as the band.

Little break time for Miles Kane and his companions and time for the audience to show what they're made of. Kane asks everyone to shout as loud as they can… then he decided to turn it into a game where floor people and balcony people (friendly) fight for the loudest crowd. Nice and great moment!

On "Darkness In Our Hearts", there's a fine moment between Sharrock and Moran who look at each other with a bright smile on their faces… but the one nobody missed at that moment is certainly the poor technician. Most of the time, I saw him changing Kane and Moran guitars… Carried away by his enthusiasm, Kane took his microphone stand with him, leaving no choice for the guy backstage to run across the stage to fix things. Which he did well. More than once, actually.

Time to slow down things a little bit with "Take The Night From Me", under blue electric lights… The tremolos coming out from Kane's guitar are just magic! Sunday morning, I had a chat with a few people that were also at the show and one of them wrote that every time he listened to that one, he was thinking… of pizza and gondolas… Weird thing is that I also thought that the first time I ever heard the song! The atmosphere of "Take The Night From Me" also made me think of a song from another quite very famous British band.

"My Fantasy" is a nice transition between the "Take The Night" and "Tonight"… The audience generously accompanies Miles Kane on the "Oh darling, hold me like before" parts.

Darkness again, with a few blue lights on a stage… Instrumental music. Time stands still… audience is patiently waiting to find out what song they'll play next. One riff, three words (You're guilty) and you know that you're in for "Tonight". Kane just can't stand still and his energy is incredibly contagious… The more he seems to give, the more you want to send him back what he gives you.

Next one was a blast, icing on the cake. I had read they performed it a few times and was secretly hoping they'd do it in Brussels. Didn't even need the typical "Oh ooooh's" of the song : Sharrock's drumming melody and one guitar riff from Moran were enough to make me yell a "YES" when I realized that Miles and his fellow musicians had started playing the well-known Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil". Before singing, Miles moves to the left side of the stage to warm up the crowd and then, he starts the song… Before singing "Washed his hands and sealed his fate", he spits in both hands (for fake) before rubbing them and... playing such a great guitar solo. You suddenly sense something is going on… Miles speaks to everyone and asks to help him to "look for a way out". Sweet and nice transition to his own song "Give up"… where he is helped by the whole Ancienne Belgique who repeats the line "You're pretty, good-looking but I'm looking for a way out" after him. This is one nice mash-up song… I absolutely loved that!

After such a strong moment, time for some rest. Kane grabs an acoustic guitar and plays "Out Of Control". In front of him, a girl uses both her hands to make a heart…

But don't think for a sec that rock and roll has left the building. It's still here and "Inhaler" proves it. I had never noticed it before tonight but "Inhaler" has a very Jack White-like sound… Indeed, the atmosphere at that moment reminds me a bit of White's show last year… only in a better venue!

Time now to end the show with "Don't Forget Who You Are"… and thaaaaat is where every person in front of these five guys shows them how much they love them. Not so unusual at the AB, a guy pops out of the crowd and kind of swim on top of it… When the band starts the chorus, the whole crowd sings with them, as if it was one big giant entity. A guy rises from the crowd raising his arms to the sky and, of course, gets Miles' full attention. He also unfortunately got the attention of a security guard who tries to make him understand (with a flashlight??) that he has to go back to where he was one minute before… No sense of rock and roll in the security world… :p

Before singing the chorus another time, the British singer invites the audience to sing along.. Jeez that one is the real deal on a live show. Thrilling experience… And then it ends. Or… not entirely. All musicians waves at us before leaving the stage. Miles stays and starts to sing the chorus again and then… leaves the stage and let the audience sings it. And they DO sing it. All over again and again. As a way to prove him that he HAS to come back and sing another song. More than one minute of "La la lalalalala… don't forget who you are". I suddenly think that yes, I'm quite sure Brussels and Belgium will certainly not forget who Miles Kane is before a loooooong time.

He comes back on stage, alone, with an acoustic guitar. He starts talking and all the crowd starts screaming… He watches around him and, for about 30 seconds, takes the time to observe the wildness he caused at the Ancienne Belgique before announcing the next song : Colour of the Trap.

His four bandmates join him for a final song. Miles asks for a bass sound, which Phil Anderson gives, followed by Parsons, Sharrock and Moran… They start a powerful intro before playing "Come Closer"… which – once again – leads the crowd to sing along like crazy…

Before ending the show for good, Kane strides across the stage one last time… He stops, turns to the front stage people and leans towards them, almost allowing them to touch his guitar… Oooh all those little fingers trying to reach that guitar as if it was made of gold… One final hit on Sharrock's drums and it's all over.

Not. Kane applauses, joins his hands and raises them above his head… and starts singing again some "Ah ahh" while his fans go for the "Ohhhs" before being joined by four mates for another round of "Come Closer". This is all sooooo crazy and great! When they're done with the song, Kane is on his knees, Sharrock throws his stick in the crowd while Moran raises his SG above his head…

The musicians leaves the stage, Miles Kane turns his back on the audience and starts singing once again… just to make that incredible moment last a little bit longer. To tell you the truth… now that a few hours have passed, I know that I hadn't felt that way in the Ancienne Belgique since Slash's performance…

These guys… they tied me up to the vibes of their guitars'strings, to the beat of the drums, to the notes of the keyboard, to the great and wonderful energy they passed on to us… and they probably have no idea of the thrill and emotions they can give to people.

I watched a video earlier today where Miles Kane mentioned that while recording "Don't Forget Who You Are", he had in mind to write songs that'd be great to perform on stage, songs that'd make the audience react. Well, he certainly won that bet 'cos most of the night, the audience responded a lot to his songs… Honestly, I encourage those of you who have still never listened to Miles Kane to give it a try and let me know if you didn't move a finger while listening to them… And you'd still be so far away from the emotions you get when you see him playing his songs right in front of you.

As promised, let's now talk about Kane's band members. Each of them managed to blew me away a few times during the show: Sharrock on "Better Than That" and "Don't Forget Who you Are", Anderson on "My Fantasy" and "Come Closer", Parsons on "Taking Over", Moran on "Quicksand" and "Inhaler"…

Most of the time, talented guys like these aren't exactly beginners and it's sometimes worth to watch outside the box and start digging a little deeper. So I dug deeper…

L to R : P. Anderson (bass), B. Parsons (keyboards), J. Sharrock (drums), M. Kane & G. Moran (rhythm guitar)

Jay Sharrock's family name rang a bell from the very start but it took me a few minutes before remembering that there was a another Sharrock drummer in the world of music. In Oasis. Well… Beady Eye, I mean… So Jay was practically born into the world of drumming. And you can't miss that while watching him playing his drums…

Bassist Phil Anderson and keyboardist Ben Parsons worked together in a band named Cherry Ghost. The band's discography contains two albums: Thirst For Romance (2007) and Beneath This Burning Shoreline (2010). They are also currently working on their third album. And from what I've heard so far, I just can't wait to hear other songs… You'd be surprised to know how much time it took me to pick a song to introduce you to them. Here's my final (?) choice :

As for George Moran, he may be Kane's rhythm guitarist these days but he used to play in the no-longer existing band Mabel Rose as a… bassist. Both Moran and Anderson provided background vocals at Kane's gig but I was almost sure that it was Moran's voice that my ears noticed a bit more. Listening to other Kane acoustic performances on YouTube confirmed that feeling. Indeed, the young man has a very interesting voice and I wouldn't mind seeing him starting a career on his own… Would you agree, dear readers? ;)

But in order to do that, that'd probably require him to slow down on the a) touring/working with Miles Kane and b) production of artists.

Alistair Sheerin is one of the artists Moran worked with a few months ago… A promising old man from Middlesbrough, north east England, whose musical influences says it all: The Kinks, Stereophonics, Brandon Flowers, Bob Dylan, John Mayer but also… The Last Shadow Puppets. And Miles Kane. It is still SO reassuring to see that not every young people turn to Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, One Direction or Ke$ha… At the top of his 21 year old, Alistair is a fine example that there will always be young musicians to keep the world of music alive. He will release a live EP on November, 19^th and I can't wait to put my earphones and listen to it… Just because I once discovered… this.

So basically… Miles Kane is an amazing artist who knows not only how to write great songs but who's also enough intelligent to bring talented people in his musical entourage.

That may be the secret for magical music and performances…

And honestly… is there anything… better than that?