Sam Halmarack & The Miserablites
Mayfest 2011
Sam Halmarack & The Miserablites are billed as bombastic pioneers of interactive stadium pop, a description the band very much live up to in their performance, which promises hand-clapping anthems and electro music to move and inspire.
Halmarack is a lead worthy of great praise; his charisma and talent for songwriting shine brightly at this evening’s gig. The ushers urge us forward to make further capacity, bringing us closer to the stage and to Halmarack himself, who is dressed in fabulous golden jacket and sweatband combo.
The songs are indeed anthemic, with titles such as We Are The Champions Of The Universe, This Is Romance and Never Giving Up. Halmarack’s lyrics and performance are tinged with a humbling honesty and vulnerability, which elevate the simple electro-pop beats and give emotional integrity. Simple but addictive drum rhythms and cheery glockenspiel carry I Never Was Been, where the potentially downbeat sentiment “I’m not a has-been, I never was been” becomes charmingly coy and darkly humorous with Halmarack’s wry delivery
As the gig progresses and I am more and more drawn in by Halmarack’s likeable, self effacing performance and I am indeed offered a unique take on what it means to be redeemed by music. I begin to feel like I wish I could be part of the band, that I too could play the drums or the glock.
Halmarack & The Miserablites play for an hour and leave in a haze of bright white light to rousing applause. The choice of final song is curiously downbeat in comparison to the bouncy electropop of earlier tracks and I assume that this is because Halmarack is saving the best for last with an encore. Regrettably we are left wanting more, as the lights fade and the house lights come up I am left feeling elated and slightly sweaty, but with a tinge of sadness that the show is over.
Michael Jones
14th May 2011
