Library Voices raised (Horseshoe Oct 28, 2011)

It is with such great energy that the Library Voices put on a show. It is infectious. The good humour and fun that they are having while playing such darn catchy music quickly spreads to the audience and before you know it - dancing, singing, sweating along. Last night at the Horseshoe was another perfect example of this (and definitely worth sprinting over to following Dan Mangan).

The Summer of Lust is the album I had been waiting for after the immense promise of Hunting Ghosts. I hear Denim on Denim as a worthwhile stumbling block toward this pop masterpiece and so I was especially stoked to finally sing along to these tracks live. Didn't take long as opening track/opening number Raymond Carver got things going. From here it was just song after song of amazing, covering the whole range of Kundera on the Dance Floor, through Drinking Games, Haunt this House and 2012 back around to a most wonderful Step Off the Map and Float. As mentioned it was the newly minted songs such as Que Sera Sarah, Traveller's Digest, Reluctant Readers and especially Generation Handclap (where everyone came to the stage front to yell the Ohhhhh), that were real treats. All the while the band is smiling, laughing and playing their hearts out. The four legs of the synth stand didn't touch the floor simultaneously all night.

There was an interlude to bring a Nick on stage and present him with a mustache cake to thank him for shaving his beard off in preparation for Movember. Further fun came from a cover (about a letter, I can't place now) and the encore-closing Oh Yoko (Lennon, who else?) that turned into a love-in and had the band all down in the midst of the crowd just belting it out through wide grins. Such fun!