Gig review: John Bramwell at The Crescent, York

John Bramwell has been touring without his former I Am Kloot colleagues for nearly eight years. Kloot have a long and illustrious back catalogue, which has been readily plundered by Bramwell and his recently convened Full Harmonic Convergence band, his debut solo album Leave Alone the Empty Spaces making the briefest of appearances in setlists.

His 2024 release The Light Fantastic has changed everything. It’s a wonderful, harmonious and lyrically gloriously piece of work that appears to have renewed Bramwell’s confidence in producing music that once resulted in Kloot being nominated for the Mercury Prize. The album has changed the entire context of Bramwell’s live set, it’s now centred around his solo work, the better known Kloot classics providing the thread that runs through holding it together as opposed to taking centre stage.

Each member of the band plays numerous different instruments, other than Bramwell who is only permitted access to two guitars – three would, by his own admission, confuse him – resulting in him frequently stopping to retune his instruments. There was no break in proceedings during this time however, Bramwell is as an impressive raconteur as he is musician and lyricist.

Meet Me at the Station was preluded with a not entirely convincing story about Bramwell’s dog beaming the lyrics into his eyes whilst sat at Crewe train station, the Element of Truth with some hero worshipping of the sound engineer, who had to be fair played his part with crystal clear sound all evening.

Opening the set with five solo tracks, four from Light Fantastic before 86 TV’s being the first Kloot introduction, demonstrates the strength of the recent album and the singer’s confidence in it. There is plenty of room for the sing-a-long classics, The Same Deep Water as Me, Northern Skies and To the Brink will always engage, but this evening was about showcasing new highlights, Here it Comes and Sky Full of Thunder and Lightening mid-set standouts.

The rendition of Because was so powerful it drew a hoarsely whispered comment of exclamation from the front row of the seated crowd, the epitome of five musicians at the absolute top of their game.

Inevitably the twenty four near two hour set concluded with three Kloot songs. There was no encore, simply because the amount of instruments on the small stage precluded easy walking off and back on again and Bramwell couldn’t be bothered to ‘stand in a dark corridor, wasting time’, so the band just went straight into Proof to conclude a set brimming with self-belief, confidence and a reinvigorated front man.