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The first time I witnessed These New Puritans, only 3 months ago, they filled a support slot for British Sea Power. They were too loose, sour-faced and the music that’s always been so enticing on ‘Beat Pyramid’ had become uninteresting. The second time round they’d been reduced to two members for the occasion, and were streets ahead of their previous performance. But it felt like they were cheating – a sampler replacing a drum kit was the pioneer in their performance. However third time lucky and as Gigwise witnessed four members take to the stage at the Freebutt, they’d finally struck gold.
Prior to the most satisfying live performance of the year thus far, an equally exciting Grammatics decide to try and out-do These New Puritans with their originally-done, peculiar indie music. Owen Brinley’s presence as a frontman is overwhelming - he’s on his way to becoming the new Matt Bellamy with his dominant guitar and high-pitched yet pitch-perfect vocals. Every now and then he produces a sudden jerk movement of either frustration or enjoyment. The fellow members seem to be getting into it just as much, and the crowd start to become captivated.
Recent single ‘D.I.LL.E.M.A’ is clearly the stand-out, sounding a thousand times more compact and thrilling than any of the others, despite the moving performance of b-side ‘Polar Swelling’. Their set spans longer than our headline act and they come off the miniature stage looking thoroughly satisfied with their near-flawless performance.
Despite this, it would take a lot more to out-perform These New Puritans tonight. Jack Barnett enters coated by bronze feathers and things begin to get exciting prior to a note even being played. What we witness though is a consistent, stimulating set. Opening with recent single ‘Swords Of Truth’, their sound is tight, perfectly-timed and suits the intimate venue like no other band Gigwise has before witnessed at the Freebutt.
Racing through the better moments on ‘Beat Pyramid’, song-by-song the crowd begin to get more and more into it. A couple of alcohol-fuelled fans begin to shout the more memorable, non-sensical lyrics from the record; “China! India! My future! Scatter! Scatter!” and “I am in the air! I am in the rain! I am in the 60 seconds!” make little sense yet they ooze cool, finally proving to Gigwise that the mysterious edge that plays to well with the listener on the record has arrived on the live stage. Highlight’s come about from ‘En Papier’ and b-side ‘fff’ - both efforts making heads nod in time with the hammer-hit drums.
These New Puritans still make little sense to most of us, this cryptic code that lies at the forefront of every song on the album still hasn’t quite been worked out and they make even less sense when Barnett begins to talk to the crowd, echo still placed on his microphone. All is audible are the words “bar” and a couple of curses. All the same, what does make sense is that These New Puritans have finally nailed it on the live stage as a four-piece, so hopefully once they fill a support slot in the future, a lot more will take notice.
