Tuesday 27/11/07 The Enemy, The Wombats, Noah And The Whale @ The Union Chapel, Islington

The penultimate evening of Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions once more supplied a line up as equally eclectic as the audience that had penetrated The Union Chapel’s gothic architecture amid whispers and rumours of potential unannounced special guest performances. Church pews aren’t built for comfort, more an ingenious pious method for keeping members of the congregation awake during long winded sermons, but just as the sell out crowd begin to fidget, a direct result of numb-bum syndrome, Jo Whiley opens the evenings proceedings by introducing tonight’s first act Noah And The Whale. A functioning band for not much more than a year, it’s fair to say that this London based quintet are shrouded in a certain amount of mystery. Utilising violin and harmonium alongside acoustic guitar, it’s a solemn and sombre affair from the start. Vacant and shell shocked with a downbeat intensity, their blend of sparse folk-pop deals largely with love, life and loss. The band seem to find their feet relatively easily, with lead singer and visionary Charlie Fink comparing the acoustics of the venue to “Playing into a good making machine” unfortunately the audience take longer to catch on. But the likes of ‘Do What I Do’ and ‘Rocks And Daggers’ seem to win the congregation over and the bands beaming faces speak volumes.

Burrowing through home soil after a month of touring Europe is another group with a zoologically influenced name, The Wombats. Its big smiles all round and a huge welcome from the audience, justified even more so with the opening track and almost campfire rendition of ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’ which moves swiftly in an acoustic version of ‘Kill The Director’. It’s quite clear that the trio aren’t out of their depth, just hugely overawed, but completely at ease and enjoying every minute of stage time. Infusing plenty of scouse banter into a set consisting of ‘Patricia The Stripper’ (which immediately provokes a mass crowd clapping reaction and see’s the front row photographers falling over themselves to get clean shots), a touching rendition of ‘Little Miss Pipe Dream’ and ‘Moving To New York’, its an unequivocal triumph all round for Liverpool’s most famous marsupials.

Rounding off the evening is Q-Award winning Best New Act 2007, The Enemy. Leading the band out with a swagger and backed by a string quartet, lead vocalist Tom Clarke takes his seat to initiate a confidently stirring version of their forthcoming release ‘We’ll Live And Die In These Town’s’. It’s a stunning start to the set, one that well and truly raises the bar and promises bigger and better things to come and the band have no problems in rising to the challenge; with ‘Away From Here’, ‘Stop Living Your Life’, ‘Happy Birthday Jane’ and ‘You’re Not Alone’ all delivered with the passion of an angry young man done good. Nervous and intense only go some way in describing the set so far and watching Clarke eclipse his band-mates you catch faint yet unmistakable glimmers of a humbled Doherty, Gallagher and Meighan all rolled into an Adidas tracky top.

Coventry’s latest musical export also find the time to cover David Bowie’s ‘Five Years’ and T-Rex’s ‘Cosmic Dancer’ and both are delivered with the same quality as their own material. Closing another successful and unique evening of blinding music with ‘This Song Is About You’, it’s the first time that the band look relaxed and Clarke even allows himself a well earned a fully deserved smile. Exiting the stage they are met with a unanimous standing ovation and a siege of people trying to shake hands with a rather bemused looking Clarke. There might not have been any unannounced special guest appearances tonight, but on The Enemy’s astounding performance alone, that’s wholly irrelevant.