The Acorn – The Hope, Brighton 07/09/08

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Having played an impromptu set on a blustery Brighton beach early that day, a tired looking Acorn took to the UK stage for the first time. In good humour throughout, this felt more like an evening in the company of friends than a blog hyped ‘hot new thing’. Sharing jokes with the band and the audience alike the band tore through a 45 minute set, as they begin their mission to ‘inseminate’ the UK with their music digitally (thanks for that image Howie).

With a whole heap of instruments littered around the stage, no fewer than four people playing Ukelele’s (though thankfully not at the same time) and a frenzied percussionist, The Acorn live experience packs more energy into the slower material, and comes across as less earnest than the album. A frenzy of handclaps and keyboardist Keiko coming to the front of the stage for ‘Flood’ brought to a close a wonderful evening, leaving most of the admittedly sparse audience with a skip in their step. Frontman Klausner then seems to spend the next half an hour happily chatting with members of the audience in French, German and English on every subject from missing his pet cat to his experiences at SXSW. But my personal favourite post show moment was watching a new found fan asking bassist/ guitarist Jeff to sign the nights show poster. ‘Hey, That’s my back garden!’ he says.