After a year away in the studio, Clean Cut Kid return with funky new tunes, a new bassist and many new fans for their “The Give Love Tour”, sold-out show at The Wardrobe on the 23rd November.

Fellow Liverpudlians, The Peach Fuzz warmed the crowd up with some jazzy beats, one of which was their new single, ‘Destroy the Evidence’ which came out the day of the gig!

Followed by Clean Cut Kid, the quartet opened with a new song ‘Goodbye’, and a remastered favourite, ‘We Used to be in Love’ from their debut album Felt which got the crowd bopping and singing along. Guitarist, Mike Halls, remarked on how they’re out of practice since they’ve been away recording for the past year and apologised if it’s not so smooth between songs.

They continued with catchy ‘Slow Progress’ from the Painkiller EP, which they released last month- the guitar riffs contradict the song title feeling as it progresses quickly and could be the perfect encore song. The set continued with rockier tracks like ‘Deafening’ allowing keyboardist, Evelyn wife of Mike, to sing more. As Mike is handled a guitar named Minnie, he introduces their new bassist, Gaz who was joked to be his stunt double as they both appear with their very long hairy beards, and explains that the next song was actually written about a final goodbye due to a fallout they had when they were younger, ‘Brother of Mine’. This made the song quite moving, especially as Mike lost himself halfway through the song, leaving the crowd to feel the raw emotion.

After the indie pop favourites ‘Pick Me Up’ and ‘Vitamin C’, the energy was ecstatic in the room with everyone clapping, jumping along but bittersweet that it had come to this point in the set already.

Ending the infectious show with a more mellow sound, ‘Emily’, said to have Fleetwood Mac vibes about it, a song about their friend suffering with depression and to reach out to support your friends that may need help.

Clean Cut Kid promised they will not be away for this long again and fitting the tour title the love was sure shared across the room that night. It is unconfirmed when #CCKalbum2 will drop but hopefully it’ll be very soon, as it is definitely going to be one to get your hands on!

Amy Brown

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