Clientele & Field Music, Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis

Two English bands with vastly different sounds descend upon Minneapolis’ Cedar Cultural Center, with Sunderland’s Field Music delivering a tight, intricate performance that leans heavily on their new songs, while London’s Clientele play a wonderfully lush, captivating set that spans their entire distinguished career. Both bands are charming and spirited during their performances, and when paired with the pristine sound of the tiny club, the audience really is treated to a special night.

Field Music, playing their first ever show in Minneapolis, kick the night off nicely, displaying a taut, focused sound that was intricate but also affecting. The brothers Peter and David Brewis trade-off guitar, drums and vocal duties all evening long, imbuing each of their respective songs with their own unique style and tone. Opening track ‘Give It Lose It Take It’ is dynamic and driving, and blends smoothly into ‘A House Is Not A Home.’ The four-piece are locked in all evening long, with their sudden time changes and shifts in melody steady and seamless throughout their 50 minute set.

Their songs are relentless poppy, but also incredibly ornate, not unlike Dirty Projectors, and hopefully the strength of their sprawling double-album ‘Measure’ will help them attract a wider audience. Their set drew largely from their new album, with standouts being the Talking Heads-tinged ‘Each Time Is A New Time,’ ‘Effortlessly,’ and ‘Share The Words,’ which closes out the set strongly along with a fuzzed-out version of ‘Tell Me Keep Me.’ They also state that one of their songs is inspired by one of Minneapolis’ favorite sons, and when the audience asks which one, David assures us we’ll figure it out, before amusingly introducing the next song as ‘Raspberry Beret.’ The band also joke that they are as excited to see Clientele as we were, since they ‘don’t come our way that often. They travel all the way here to play, but don’t drive the 5 1/2 hours to play where we live.’ The Brewis brothers are both quite affable throughout their performance, easily winning over the crowd with their acerbic wit and musical dexterity. It is ultimately a fervent, enthusiastic set by Field Music, and hopefully they will be back to Minneapolis soon as headliners, providing them with a longer set in order to work through more of their engaging, impassioned songs.

Clientele stroll on stage clearly in a good mood, with Alasdair MacLean remarking to the seated and courteous crowd, ‘This is all very civilized, innit?’ And with that, the band open with a tender cover of Big Star’s ‘Nighttime,’ which they quickly follow with a splendid version of ‘Since K Got Over Me’ that really finds the band growing at ease with the audience and settling in to their surroundings. MacLean jokes that they are ‘getting all the old ones out of the way first’ before they play a lovely version of ‘We Could Walk Together,’ from their debut full-length ‘Suburban Light’. The focus then shifts to their gorgeous new record as they play glorious versions of ‘Bonfires On The Heath’ and ‘Never Anyone But You.’ Their music has an easy way of transfixing an audience, and by this point all of us are under the singular charms of the Clientele.

Their 70-minute set is split rather evenly between their older material and the newer songs, but I am truly surprised with how deeply they dig into their back catalog, especially after Alasdair says they’re getting their old songs out of the way first. That doesn’t prove to be true, thankfully, as the band bestow us with the classics ‘My Own Face Inside The Trees,’ ‘Saturday,’ and an absolutely on-fire version of ‘Lamplight’ that had MacLean wholly consumes by his extended guitar solo. The new material sounds incredible live, with MacLean’s serene vocals ringing sonorously through the club, augmented by Mel Draisey’s subtle keyboards and violin accompaniments, as well as the steady rhythm section of Mark Keen and James Hornsey. ‘I Wonder Who We Are’ and ‘Harvest Time’ both sound lush and polished, even better than the sublime studio versions found on ‘Bonfire’.

The main set closes languidly with ‘These Days Nothing But Sunshine,’ the second song from the set culled from the excellent ‘God Save The Clientele’ record, with ‘Somebody Changed’ having been performed earlier in the show. It is a stately way to finish the main set, and set the encore up well. MacLean jokes that they are going to do ‘one old one and one new one. Something for everybody, unless you like Tupac or something.’ The old song is an absolutely gorgeous version of ‘Reflections After Jane’ that puts the spotlight squarely on MacLean’s dulcet vocals and his nimble guitar work. It is wonderful to see the band going that far back into their past during the set, and this is my favorite of their older songs. The new song, ‘I Know I Will See Your Face,’ ends the show resplendently, clearly illuminating how strong an album ‘Bonfires’ truly is.

And after some quick thank-you’s the band are off, leaving the crowd on their feet showing their appreciation of the fine performance they have just witnessed. It was strong display of superb English music, with both the North and the South end represented admirably, and while Field Music and Clientele’s styles and sounds are quite different, they both compliment each other nicely, and deliver stellar sets that easily captivate an appreciative and approving audience.