With a brand new album Philophobia released at the end of September, AMBER RUN were coming to the end of their UK headline tour. Tonight saw them arrive in Exeter for what promised to be a great night of new material and classics lifted from their previous long players and EP’s.

I saw them play in Exeter in 2017 at The Phoenix and chatted to Joe Keogh ahead of the gig, they had just released their sophomore album For A Moment, I Was Lost and when I asked him how many of the new tracks would be on the setlist, he said they’re looking to have 6-7 which I thought was a very bold move at the time but looking back and having listened to the album again, it is clear that it’s full of very strong tracks. I wasn’t able to arrange any time ahead of the 2019 show so can only assume that they’ll be following suit and doing much the same as they did before.

Speaking about the new album, Joe explains “I hope after people have heard the record, they feel closer to the band. Gone are the days where we feel angry to the point of pushing people away. We want to draw people in and keep them close. In the hope we could have a shared experience.”

Exeter’s Lemongrove was a hive of activity ahead of the show, lots of fans waiting patiently for AMBER RUN to take to the stage and showcase their new material. Having been out for a couple of weeks, I’d have hoped that the die hard fans will have had enough time to memorise the lyrics to the new album so they could sing along, much the same as I did back in the late 70’s and 80’s courtesy of Smash Hits magazine, ahem, I’ll move on….

Stereo Honey are an at-pop four piece from London who fuse atmospheric soundscapes, a tremendous blend of indie pop and a falsetto vocal, something that you don’t see very often but is something that Stereo Honey seem to do in an almost effortless manner. Tonight was their first time in Exeter and it was great to see that the Lemongrove provided such a strong turnout for them. Often, everyone just hangs about in the bar until the main act take to the stage, but tonight, it was great to see that people had made the effort to get in early and catch the opening act.

Amongst the flourishes of pure joy delivered by the band there was a slightly harder undercurrent, a melancholy slant on classic indie pop complemented with hints of the synth really made their sound stand out from other acts I’ve been to see recently. Stereo Honey are a band on the way up the ladder and supporting Amber Run on their headline tour of the UK isn’t a bad place to start! They commented that they’d really enjoyed the tour, all two and a half weeks of it but couldn’t help admitting that they were looking forward to getting back to their own beds!

Amber Run took to the stage to a huge cheer, deservedly so, they are a band that have never pretended to be anything other than what they are, a hard working bunch of guys who perform amazing music. From the off, you could tell that we were in for a crowd pleasing set consisting of tracks from their latest long player and their back catalogue.

Opening strongly with ‘Neon Circus’, it gave the band a chance to unleash on the audience and set out their stall from the get go.

‘Fickle Game’ saw Joe without his guitar, allowing their session guitarist to take centre stage to demonstrate his guitar-playing prowess. ‘Pilot’ got the audience revved up, this is so much more an indie rock anthem from their back catalogue and with Joe back on guitar, it really helped give it some oomph.

Looking across the frontline, I could see that there were some die-hard fans in attendance, singing along to every word and squealing in delight when Joe stood on the edge of the stage and asked if everyone was having a good time!

Joe launched into ‘Dark Bloom’ with just a synth to accompany him, his voice, unfiltered, with the lack of accompaniment, sounded raw and real. As soon as the rhythmic drums kicked in and the vocal harmonies emanated from the stage, it really took you away to another place. Soon after, the heavenly vocal harmonies were replaced with an almost guttural display of guitars and drums, rising to a crescendo until it stopped dead, leaving joe on his own over a bed of light synth, ending as he had started a few moments earlier…..immense stuff indeed!

Midway through the set, Joe spent time thanking the fans for coming to see them and explained that it was tours like these that really mean the world to them, without the fansm there would be no tours and no chances to play live! They thanked Stereo Honey for being their support band and invited Pete Restrick to the stage to join them for a truly sublime version of ‘affection'. Joe left Pete to sing on his own prior to accompanying him for some super sweet vocal harmonies as the track came to a close.

Joe chatted to the fans in-between songs and said he was asked in a recent interview which song he was most proud of (apart from all of them of course!)  After a moment of deliberation, Joe settled on a track called ‘Amen’ and told a story about hearing of the passing of his Grandfather whilst on tour, At the funeral, he was asked to read a poem written by Bob Marley, which he admitted were ‘hollow words’ as the poem didn’t mean anything to him and when he was able to, he decided to write a poem of his own and ‘Amen’ was created. He introduced the song as “the eulogy that he’d wished he’d given at his grandfathers funeral”. What followed was a tender, honest and touching few minutes as the song echoed around the room, the audience stood in silence as Joe sang his heart out for his late Grandfather, it was beautiful to see that everyone remained silent throughout, a real mark of respect to someone who clearly meant so much to Joe.

The set came to a close with ‘Wastelands’, the band left the stage, waited for a minute until the chants of ‘we want more' echoed around the room before bounding back to the stage to knock out another three tracks for what was, one hell of an encore. ‘Haze’ kicked things off, despite it’s rather dour subject matter, it sounded incredible with a 5 part vocal harmony and light synth to give it depth. ‘I found' was up next and from the way Joe was introducing it, it was a track that doesn’t receive that much air on tour. Joe asked for people to put their phones away and join them in the moment and not to worry as there were already “tons of videos out there to watch later”.

They closed the show with ‘No Answers' which literally took the roof off the Lemongrove, what a way to finish the set, Joe was leaping around the stage, the guitarist was giving it 110% and the crowd were lapping it up like a bunch of new born kittens at the milk bowl.

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen Amber Run perform live in Exeter and I can honestly say that tonight’s performance was loaded with passion, energy and feeling which clearly conveyed to the audience who looked absolutely spent come the end. As fans clambered to snatch the set lists that were being handed out by the stage crew, I handed a lovely young lady one of Joe’s plectrums that I found on the stage, she wouldn’t let go of my hand and looked to be mouthing “Thank You” over and over again, she finally broke her grip and ran to the rest of her friends who were clearly eager to get on their way after such an exciting show.

It was truly amazing to see the hold that this band have over their fans, long may it continue!

Setlist:

Neon Circus

Just My Soul Responding

Insomniac

Stranger

Fickle Game

Pilot

No One Gets Out Alive

Dark Bloom

Affection

Amen

5AM

Carousel

What Could Be As Lonely As Love

The Darkness Has A Voice

Noah

Spark

Wastelands

Encore:

Haze

I Found

No Answers

Words and Pictures by Steve Muscutt