Tunng, The Garage, London, March 25th 2010

Folk-rock-electronica-beats band Tunng have been firm favourites in our household, hence a full family turn-out for this gig. 2005’s Mother’s Daughter And Other Songs was a brilliant debut, but recent CD And Then We Saw Land… , their fourth, marked a change in direction. Gone is co-founder Sam Genders and with him a lot of the left-field,  folky nature of their sound. The new album is poppier, rockier and more ‘anthemic’ – which I’m not sure is a good thing, so I was interested to see how their live show might have changed.

They have certainly become more confident on stage and their singing and harmonising is surer than it often was in the past. Mike Lindsay is an affable front-man and jovially led the audience into some singing along early on, with new song It Breaks. Other new songs share this campfire approach – Don’t Look Down Or Back and Santiago in particular – but it’s the less accessible new material that attracts the ear. Sashimi is a weird mix of beats, guitar and all sorts, while October is more hushed and reminiscent of their earliest stuff.

Mike indulged his ‘rock god’ fantasy by donning absurd Elton-style sunglasses and posing through the solo in By Dusk They Were In The City, but it’s co-singer Becky who’s more to the forefront vocally these days. Certainly her voice has matured over the last few years and is strong enough to take the lead without Mike’s vocal support.

Tunng suffered the usual nuisance when showcasing new material in that the older songs got the biggest cheers, so it was no surprise that the crowd bobbed merrily up and down to favourites such as Woodcat and Jenny Again. And Bullets is a great sing-along to send people home happy, but I’m more interested in the newer stuff that works better live than on CD. And on that score, recent single Hustle and the meandering, Latin-tinged Weekend Away promise intriguing developments ahead. Here for your pleasure is the official video for Hustle: