Haim – King's College, London 14/11/2012

On this trip, their first UK headline tour, you’d expect them to do much the same but with a much bigger impact, except walking out of King’s College tonight it’s hard not to feel a little short changed.

Skipping on stage half an hour late, they launch right into ‘Better Off’, the packed room whooping and cheering with approval at their opening choice. Maybe it’s the venue itself or the crowd – who stand fairly motionless until ‘Forever’ – but somewhere along the line there’s a disconnect that blocks the sisters’ assured and accomplished playing from really having anywhere near the effect you’d expect.

In isolation, away from the live setting, the songs are as strong as you’d expect. Tonight we get the daisy chain delicacy of ‘Honey and I’, new single and out and out stone cold future classic ‘Don’t Save Me’ and the rousing closer ‘Let Me Go’ that concludes the night with the girls joining drummer Dash Hutton in banging the life out of their own mini drum kits. On record, they’d be perfect – fist-pumping gems to dance around your bedroom too – but here, underneath the venue’s glittering chandeliers, they fall flat.

Haim could never be accused of not trying to lift the crowd though. Tonight bassist Este has her usual arsenal of quips to roll out between songs and does her best English accent (verdict: largely believable), picks out one boy on the front row to make eyes at and punctuates each line with one curse word or another. She’s also greeted with a smattering of demands to shut up from the back of the room but she either doesn’t hear them (most likely, seeing as she seems the type to take down any hecklers) or just pretends their cries haven’t reached her ears.

Midway through the set, Este announces “this is the part where we like to jam” and, on this occasion, she’s not fooling around as her and her sisters Alana and Danielle launch into an apparently improvised song. Except it’s not improvised or spontaneous. It’s the same “jam” they’ve been rolling out since their first shows over here in the summer. For those fresh to the Haim live experience, it might seem impressive that they seemingly have this innate musical connection that means they can whip up a song in a matter of seconds – perhaps you’d put it down to some kind of sibling telepathy – but when you know the reality is they’ve had months of performing and practicing it, the magic wanes slightly.

Soon it’s time for the aforementioned ‘Let Me Go’ and though its drum wig out finale saves the set slightly from feeling almost completely lifeless, it’s too little, too late. Whilst it would be rash to write off Haim after one dud show, tonight’s lacklustre experience does question whether the growing excitement around them is a little over the top.