My wife and I spent a good chunk of yesterday evening at the Crystal Ballroom, a small venue in the Boston suburb of Somerville. The main attraction was The Clientele, a cult band making their very first live appearance in the US since all the way back in 2017, with this concert marking the kickoff of a short August tour through the US before fall tour dates in the UK and continental Europe.

 

The crowd to witness this was pretty small, even by the standards of a rather snug (if classy) venue. My untrained eye would estimate 150 people at most, or perhaps only a 100, all clustered close to the stage to watch the British trio do their thing. If it was a touch disappointing to see a thin turnout for a veteran act with an excellent discography who are still at the top of their game (as listeners of last month’s new record I Am Not There Anymore can attest), the relative quiet and intimacy of the small venue and even smaller crowd was ultimately fitting. The Clientele are, after all, a band known for their gentle and atmospheric sense of melancholy, and if their song interpretations were a bit more rocked-up and loud presented live compared to in studio, they maintained this trademark throughout. The results were captivating.

 

Following a set by Baltimore-hailing openers The Smashing Times (an interesting act with an album out Oct 30th which I will be checking), The Clientele’s time on the stage began with “Lamplight”, one of the group’s longest tracks and the only tune to make an appearance from my favorite record of theirs (The Violet Hour). We received a beautiful rendition, if one that gave a bit of a false impression of the set to come. First of all, the album version of “Lamplight” has always left me largely unaware of the song’s lyrics, hidden behind reverb and all that, but the lyrics were quite evident live (and they were beautiful, as expected). Secondly, Alasdair MacLean finished off the song with a potent guitar solo which suggested there’d be a lot of rock heroics on tap. Neither of these items proved to be particularly predictive of the rest of the set, with the rest of the songs tracking fairly closely to their studio versions, even if a lot of the songs culled from I Am Not There Anymore (exactly 50% of the setlist) were a bit stripped-back, given the trio didn’t have enough hands to play the veritable half-symphony of instruments necessary for that album’s unusually elaborate arrangements.

 

All in all, it’s fair to say that The Clientele were in superb form, despite their lack of frequent tour dates in most of the last decade. As a frontman, MacLean’s stage presence was immaculate, mixing in self-deprecating humor and wry commentary between well-played songs. The songs delivered what they aimed to, not the most energetic, but pulling at the heartstrings and bringing listeners to a near-trance. Obvious highlights of the band’s discography, like the dreamlike and glistening “Reflections After Jane” and the captivating indie pop of “I Can’t Seem To Make You Mine” were delivered in all their pristine glory. While some in the crowd seemed less familiar with tracks from the new record (understandable given a release date less than two weeks ago), tunes like “Claire’s Not Real” and “Through The Roses” were nonetheless notable hits and held up well against their older counterparts. Meanwhile, there were also songs which I’d never fully appreciated before which came away elevated in my mind. Of the last category, “Since K Got Over Me” was particularly potent, its live presentation absolutely flawless, every note and lyric preceding as if created by some natural law of the universe, totally enrapturing the crowd, which seemed particularly enamored with the Strange Geometry era (the attendees skewed middle-aged, but there was a broad swathe of teenagers and twenty-somethings, showing that the band’s more recent records continue to attract an audience). “The Age Of Miracles”, though, was the big winner of the night for me – marking the last tune played before the encore. While I’ve always loved the “lately I’ve been livin’ like I’m so far away” part of the song (I have a heart, after all), delivered live every single line hit like a barreling train – what it all means, I can’t say exactly, but it was profound and utterly transcendent, and I could tell at least a good subset of the crowd felt the same way.

 

Following that high point, The Clientele delivered a brief two song encore with the classic “I Can’t Seem To Make You Mine” and the new stunner “Stems Of Anise”, which revealed its subtle groove and had the audience bouncing. All told, my only gripe was that this was a fairly short show – albeit an understandable situation given the band apparently just landed in America and is just getting back into the touring life. I came away satisfied with a lot of wonderful memories and a T-shirt for the band’s newest album (see below for the design). If you have a chance to see The Clientele, catch them while you can, as they have a number of tour dates in the coming months, and given their track record, who knows when the next opportunity will come!

Setlist

Lamplight (from The Violet Hour)

Chalk Flowers (from I Am Not There Anymore)

Since K Got Over Me (from Strange Geometry)

We Could Walk Together (from Suburban Light)

Claire’s Not Real (from I Am Not There Anymore)

Hey Siobhan (from I Am Not There Anymore)

Garden Eye Mantra (from I Am Not There Anymore)

Reflections After Jane (from Suburban Light)

Lacewings (from Suburban Light)

Through The Roses (from I Am Not There Anymore)

Lady Grey (from I Am Not There Anymore)

The Age Of Miracles (from Music For The Age Of Miracles)

Encore

I Can’t Seem To Make You Mine (from Strange Geometry)

Stems Of Anise (from I Am Not There Anymore)