The Unthanks

The Glee Club Nottingham
27 March 2011

An ironic sounding venue for a band whose music is full of sadness and melancholy.
Let’s make it clear I love Rachel and Becky Unthank. Their achingly beautiful voices can literally bring tears to my eyes. They are the flame-keepers for the great folk–songs of their native North East and have built around them a band full of mellifluous strings.
This tour to promote the latest album Last is an even more sombre affair than usual, as they really mine that sadness seam. It is a quality event, but I wanted more light and shade.
They even seem to recognise this themselves, joking on stage about how sad their songs always are. Their cover of Starless by King Crimson is preceded by a story of their discovering that the song is in fact about death and not depression. “Bonus!” as pianist Adrian McNally quips.
On stage they seem more confident than when I last saw them eighteen months ago. In fact it’s lovely that when we see them we get updates on their life. Becky is now engaged, whilst Rachel is quite heavily pregnant. Thus leaving clog dancing duties to her younger sister. I look forward to the next gig and finding out about how Unthank Jnr is getting on.
The Unthanks will never do jaunty and upbeat, but their encore of Blackbird provides a few shafts of light amongst the bleakness of the other songs.
Finally, it has to be said that The Glee Club is not a good venue for music. Sightlines are dreadful, with two pillars near the stage blocking out good views for a lot of people. Rows are too close together and so the act of nipping out to the loo or to the bar disturbs several rows at once.
Also, with an act like The Unthanks where one needs almost devotional silence, the sounds of the bar or the constant chink of a hard plastic glass being knocked over is really not conducive to the atmosphere required.
Their last gig in Nottingham was at the Arts Theatre. The old fashioned style of that venue seemed to suit them very well. Next time they’re here it should be the Theatre Royal on a Sunday night, which worked really well for Penguin Café.