Royworld, London Forum, June 4th
Tuesday, 10 Jun 2008 13:45
Royworld, London Forum, June 4th
Royworld have been taking the UK by storm recently, touring furiously with the likes of Guillemots and We Are Scientists, and achieving dense radio play with their latest single, Dust. Hearing that they had just finished an acoustic library tour, ending with a gig in Westminster Reference Library complete with string quartet, I snapped up the opportunity to see them live at the London Forum.
The set started energetically, with the foursome getting straight down to work, banging out their first single, Man in the Machine. Their sound on-stage is rounded and steady, but disappointingly you could actually be listening to it on the radio for all the passion they failed to convey in making their music. Lead singer Rod Futrille's vocals have a good range and convey a lot of depth, but going to see music played live is about so much more than whether the recorded sound is emulated note-for-note, and this is the aspect that Royworld seemed to lack. Interaction with the crowd was minimal, and as the gig advanced, it became clear that they were performing more for themselves than for the polite and patient audience. Some playing to the audience and improvisation would have brought the level of interest way up – even a slipped note would have woken some of us up.
The crowd was pleasantly receptive to the sound, and who wouldn't be? It's easy listening for the soft-indie generation. Despite this, Royworld's lack of effort with the audience was disappointing, and a bit of rapport-building with them would definitely have been appreciated. The pinnacle of the set was the performance of Dust, which everyone was not-so-secretly waiting for, and was reproduced with all of the solidity that you’d expect from having heard the recorded version.
The sound they produce is likeable but unmistakeably pedestrian – it's no surprise to find out that their debut album, Man in the Machine, was produced by Andy Green, producer to only marginally less boring Keane. Royworld is destined to be background music rather than something that grabs your attention. Rather than studiously copying the musical trail of Keane and Talking Heads, the band's live performance is in need of a bit of roguish rule-breaking.
Rebecca Heath
To read the inthenews.co.uk review of Royworld's debut album Man in the Machine, click here