Someone on a forum recommended them to me as I was singing the praises of Editors, one of my favourite bands to see live.
I had a listen to some of their tracks online and could see similarities and, more importantly, I liked what I heard.
I also spotted they were appearing in London in December, a month where I had no other gigs lined up, so, despite some misgivings about the reliability of the trains for going to gigs in London (after a few years of industrial disputes and over-running maintenance), I bought a ticket.
The gig was at the Assembly Hall in Islington, a venue I thought was new to me, until I remembered that Lauren and I had seen Sara Bareilles there back in 2014.
The audience tonight was very different from the mostly 20 something women from that gig, formed mostly of middle aged men and a fair number of women of similar ages.
It turns out that The Slow Readers Club were formed in Manchester in the 2010s (from the remnants of a band called Omerta, who I had vaguely heard of) and had a bit of a following, but no real commercial success until the launch, in 2015, of the album 'Cavalcade'.
The gig tonight was part of a short tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of that album's release and I'd had another listen to it and some other albums by them before coming along, in the hope I'd recognise a few tracks.
First off, we got a support act, Cheap Thrills, an indie rock band from Liverpool, who were energetic and enjoyable enough to get the crowd in the mood. A decent support act, definitely, helped, no doubt, by a good sound balance.
After a break of 30 minutes or so, as Cheap Thrills' equipment was removed, the lights dimmed and a set of light panels at the back of the stage lit up. It all looked quite slick and professional, a bit of a surprise to me, if I'm honest.
The performance took the form of two sets, separated by a very short break, with the first being the full album "Cavalcade" performed in order and the second a selection of other tracks from other albums from their back catalogue, the most recent released this year.
The quality of the sound balance continued for The Slow Readers Club, with the distinctive vocal being nice and clear above the music.
The lead singer, Aaron Starkie, has a very distinctive voice, able to sing very high notes and low ones, often within a single line of a song.
That might sound a bit gimmicky (or, God forbid, bring images of Maria Carey to mind), but it's actually really good and (in my experience) a unique sound.
Cavalcade is a good electro-indie album with a number of very strong tracks and, of course, some not quite so strong ones.
Luckily, the first 5 tracks, at least, are in the former category and the band rattled through them very well.
Those panels displayed graphics and sometimes video during each song and gave the whole performance a professional sheen.
Musically and vocally, the live sound was very like the recorded one, but not in the sterile way a few bands are (I recall really not enjoying a gig by Spandau Ballet back in the 80s, because they delivered such a performance live).
One or two of the later tracks from the album weren't as immediate, but by then we were all into the album and tracks like "Fool For Your Philosophy" and "Secrets" were still good to hear.
With the end of "Know the Day Will Come", the band left the stage, but the lights remained dimmed and the panels illuminated again about 5 minutes later.
The second set consisted of tracks from other albums, ranging from their earliest, released in 2011, through the most recent one.
I recognised some songs, such as "Everything I Own" and "All I Hear", but others, I have to admit didn't sound as familiar.
That said, I enjoyed most of them equally and overall it was a (for me) surprisingly enjoyable gig.
They finished with a song called "Lunatic" from their first label released album "Build A Tower", which broke into the top 20 album chart in the UK. The next album, "The Joy Of The Return" (from which they played "All I Hear") made it to number 9, while the recent "Out Of A Dream" (Another self-released album, like the first 3, from which a few tracks were played) got to number 11.
Unusually, there was none of the pretence of an encore, they finished their second set, took some photographs of the audience and thanked us and then they were off to the merch stand.
They seem to be a band that have a strong following (Two lovely German women I spoke to had arranged a trip to London specially to see them!) while remaining very low profile.
They are a band that performs well live, sounding similar to their recordings, but adding an edge of excitement that live performing should deliver.
I'm very pleased that I was directed their way (There are similarities to Editors, for sure, but they're definitely not a 'me too' band) as I greatly enjoyed my rare trip to 'the smoke' to see them and round off my 2025 gig going.
Setlist:
First Set - Cavalcade:
Start Again
I Saw a Ghost
Forever in Your Debt
Plant the Seed
Days Like This Will Break Your Heart
Don't Mind
Cavalcade
Fool For Your Philosophy
Grace of God
Here in the Hollow
Secrets
Know the Day Will Come
Second Set - Other Tracks:
Technofear
All I Hear
The Wait
You Opened Up My Heart
Everything I Own
Block Out the Sun
Boy So Blue
Feet on Fire
On The TV
Lunatic
