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The last time a concert graced the hallowed surroundings of The Elgar Room at The Royal Albert Hall it was a certain Laurence Olivier who did the headlining duties. Greeted by unfeasibly posh redcoats as you enter, looking at the ornate surroundings it’s easy imagine those halcyon days - well until you see that the room is crammed with converse-wearing scruffy music types. For tonight, the brand spanking new night Hush in collaboration with Transgressive Records has hired the special venue out for an evening with Absentee and Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit.
As the name implies it’s an evening of mainly hushed, yet intriguing tones (you couldn’t really imagine Napalm Death being booked to play here) that suit the atmosphere perfectly. First up is the critically-loved, commercially ignored Absentee who butter us up with their incredibly gruff, occasionally morbid mumblings from front man Dan Michaelson and their juxtaposing exuberant, lively guitar-strewn music. They’re a band who are hardly going to set the scene alight, but with tunes like the brilliant ‘We Shall Never Have Children’ in their arsenal, they deserve much more than the polite applause they get at the end of their brief set.
But the night really belongs to headliner Johnny Flynn and his backing band. Looking more like your best mate’s little brother than a cult solo artist, it makes it all the more surprising when the blond-haired, rosy cheeked youngster opens his mouth and delivers his first foot-stomping sea shanty-esque number. Indeed, you’d expect someone knocking out these kinda ditties (a la ‘Eyeless In Holloway’ and ‘The Box’) to have spent a hard life chain-smoking and glugging on gallons of rum. Yet aesthetically, backed with his equally fresh-faced band mates, it clashes perfectly somehow.
It’s undeniably the boy Flynn that is the crux of the show. Shifting between banjos, trumpets, guitars, trumpets and any other instrument he can get his hands on, the most baffling thing is how he manages to remain so expressionless amongst all the onstage activity. He may be an acquired taste, but there’s little doubting Johnny Flynn’s immense talent and beguiling charm. Almost as charming as the room of the show itself.
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