Lightspeed Champion – Birmingham Academy 2, 01/05/08

The sporadic, torrential rainfall that threatens such dreams of summer happiness, had tried to dampen spirits in the Academy, but as the smiling Dev strolled on stage wrapped up in a warm coat and his trademark Russian Kossack the man seemed to lend both garments to the room and opening the night with ‘Galaxy of the Lost’, the first lines- “I feel better now I’ve seen you” summed up what everyone was thinking.

From there things got cosy as the multi-musical and genre-flicking front man took us on a tale, using vocals coupled with conversation, of his down and up times of late and old. He seems to have hit a mixture of ages in his appeal generated in the variety of sounds and relatable lyrics, picking out his post relationships, fears and issues but placing them on top of a blanket of upbeat, instrumental delight that would otherwise provoke the standard reaction to such lyrics. Instead, the music becomes more positive looking to shake off those problems, leaving them in the winter of your past and getting you instead to look at the summer of your future.

The crowd had their dreams lifted further as the heavy jacket was lost and replaced by a summer shirt made up blue waves and golden sand. With it, the show sprang into a frenzy of toe-tapping beats as ‘Dry Lips’ and ‘Everyone I Know is Listening to Crunk’ got the crowd moving. The sun seemed to be shining all over the universe when the splendiferous introduction to ‘Midnight Surprise’ was performed using the Star Wars title track, with the bands galactic energy behind it.

The presence of violin, drums and bass created the atmosphere, but in truth the venue was just a little too large to get the most out of the sound. With such endowed music you want to be next to the guitar as it takes off.

But summer can only last so long. On the Lightspeed champion blog I had read that day, Dev revealed his thoughts on a dislike for encores, so as the final song ‘All to Shit’ came on, there was a feeling it was. Ambling out into the windy night, I felt the harsh return to reality hit my face as the door opened, but then in a typically British, unpredictable way, summer lasted a little longer than expected and thankfully the encore came.