The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Kip Berman strutted onto the stage with his acoustic guitar and gently eased us into ‘Art Smock’ as the small but perfectly formed Hoxton Bar & Grill crowd yelped with delight.

The rest of the New York 5-piece followed soon after and launched into the ‘Higher Than The Stars’. Recent single ‘Until The Sun Explodes’ continued The Cure inspired mid-tempo indie pop.

Wearing a black t-shirt and jeans Kip is one of music’s nice guys. Thanking all the support bands he’s unassuming, welcoming and instantly creates a bond with the audience who take him straight to heart. Swapping between lead and rhythm, he epitomizes geek chic, head down, furiously strumming, fully immersed in the moment.

There is a very homely quality, about The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart maybe because the music already seems so familiar, a natural extension of The Cure and The Smiths with a New York twist.

‘Come Saturday’ is welcomed with relish as is the classic ‘Young Adult Friction’.

“This is the last date on our British tour, we’ve had a blast. Thanks Dougie for making us sound good! Thanks everyone for coming lets hang out after for a while. Well, we say ‘hang’ you probably don't, I don't mean hang, cultural differences, you know. Well just come and say words to us, and we’ll say some back to you.”

How can you not warm to that? Ending with ‘Belong’ the upbeat set was brought to a close and the band retired to the merchandise stand to flog a few t-shirts and sign CDs, a job well done.

• Art Smock
(Kip solo)
• Higher Than The Stars
• Until The Sun Explodes
• Heart In Your Heartbreak
• Simple and Sure
• Come Saturday
• Young Adult Friction
• Impossible
• This Love Is Fucking Right!
• Eurydice
• The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
• Encore:
• Everything With You
• Belong