Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is nothing common or ordinary about The Common Tongues. The Brighton band knows how to extend their reach and go beyond the normal boundaries that can be artificially enforced with a studio setting. If a band or artist can sound just as interesting, quirky and simply inspiring live as they can whilst mixers are around, the very machines that produce the sometimes, not always, contrived, then they must be worth checking out and telling people about in the pubs and clubs afterwards.

Judging by the amount of people that made their way, packed their way into would be a fairer statement, the confines of Mello Mello on a busy Saturday afternoon; then that is a theory that fits The Common Tongues down to the ground.

The music hits the listener like a dream, there are small comparisons in the way they play with another Brighton based group The Levellers. Not so much obviously in the way the music is performed, there is none of the apparent outraged and justified anger at a world that seems remarkably stupid at times but in the demeanour, the quite stunning appreciation in the way they give themselves over fully to the audience. It is the nakedness, the raw feeling of seeing the band perform live in a venue, even one as beguiling and compact as Mello Mello that thrills an audience. If Leaf was full to the brim for the excellent Natalie McCool on Thursday evening then this was the equivalent of putting a thousand elephants into a matchbox and then asking them to make room for a family of giraffes who wanted to take in the view.

This level of interest wasn’t lost upon the band who gave an extraordinary account of themselves and their music. A stripped down version of the songs on their latest E.P. ensued and the talent and sound was appreciated fully. Their set soon had the audience rapt with songs such as Solitary Thinker; following this the group’s semi acoustic set was eagerly watched in its entirety. Tracks such as Who Said Word’s A Weapon, Something’s Got to Give and Cold As The Devil were greeted as though the men from Brighton had just finished a sell out tour at the Echo Arena and not at one of Liverpool’s favourite eclectic night spots.

The Common Tongues are far from regular or usual; the addition to their music of Andrew Stuart-Buttle’s violin gives the band the fervour to match the excellent vocals and splendid beating guitars, a highlight to match Natalie McCool and All We Are as artists of Sound City 2013.

Ian D. Hall