It may have been rainy on the streets of Sheffield last Friday, but once you made it to Foundry, you’d find a welcome respite from the November weather. I’m not sure you could describe English Teacher’s music as particularly sunny, hailing as they do from Leeds, but there was a real sense of warmth to their gig.
Sadly, I only managed to catch the end of the support set from The Orielles (having underestimated how long I’d spent in Bar One with my friend) – but what I saw I liked. The Halifax-based three piece brought bright, guitar driven indie rock that brilliantly complemented English Teacher’s sound. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for their fourth studio album, Only You Left, out next March.
The familiar lull between support and headliner – bumping into friends you didn’t realise were coming to this gig, attempting to catch up over the hubbub of the crowd. Rating the songs on the preshow playlist (the crowd seemed to especially enjoy Fontaines D.C.’s ‘Boys in the Better Land’, based on the impromptu sing-along).
English Teacher’s set started off quietly, choosing the more contemplative tracks from their catalogue. It’s a delight to see Lily Fontaine’s poetry-informed lyricism in person, watching how it melds with the almost math-rock guitar lines from Lewis Whiting. I also have to say that the lighting for this gig was incredible – both complementing the push and pull of the music and just looking really cool. An early highlight was ‘Broken Biscuits’, which starts and simply keeps building till you end up overwhelmed by a chest-rattling wall of sound.
Fontaine may not be the chattiest of frontwomen, but she’s delightfully witty when she does. Before playing ‘Mastermind Specialism’, she explains some of its background, “This song is about inbetweeners. For example, I’m mixed race – I was born in Yorkshire (here she pauses for the required cheering from a Yorkshire crowd), but I was raised in Lancashire.” At the mere mention of Lancashire, the crowd (of course!) responds with boos and jeering.
The band seem to really enjoy playing in Sheffield. They’ve played the Foundry stage before, and there’s a strong sense of affection for the city and its venues. And you can’t get far in Sheffield’s music scene before ending up hanging out with Richard Hawley, who generously provided a bunch of pink roses that were thrown into the crowd during ‘Nearly Daffodils’.
There was a real upturn in energy for the last four or five songs of the set. The crowd response to tracks like ‘R&B’ and ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’ really showed where the band’s strength lies. They’re at their best playing songs that you can sing along to. Their comparatively downbeat encore ended the gig on perhaps a lower note than ending with one of their bigger hits might have done, but I certainly wasn’t disappointed.
From the new songs they played, English Teacher look to have avoided the curse of the Mercury Prize, and I’m definitely excited to hear those again once they get released. A very strong gig from a band who still have so much more to give.
8/10
