It had been more than a decade since I’d last stepped foot into Mono for a Pop Mutations gig, and on Saturday for The Umbrellas it, for some reason, felt like we’d never aged. The same familiar faces and crowd, and the fantastic haircuts that adorn the venue have not left. Tonight, we had some band from California join us, headlining to plug their new album, Fairweather Friend.
The Umbrellas are four hopeless indie-pop romantics, who’ve followed their self-titled acclaimed LP with an album of ten jangly tracks that make Fairweather Friend. And it’s easy to see why they’ve been hit up by Pop Mutations; they could obviously sit alongside Camera Obscura, Teenage Fanclub, and Belle & Sebastian in all their knitted attire, big haircuts, in their production of cheery sounding pop. In fact, you might have had to check it’s indeed the other side of the Atlantic that they reside.
With little in the way of patter in between, the four-piece railed through the new album, playing ‘Gone’ and ‘Goodbye’ with a frenetic energy that meant it felt they were one and off in a split second. The tracks themselves are well-constructed, melodic pop-fuzz, and with this feverish spirit a dancing crowd didn’t take long to form.
With the band upliftingly jangly and sporting the cuts, vests and tees that we would expect – the retro vibe was truly alive. Mono was the perfect venue.
