Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Kill Van Kulls was amongst the extreme highlights of Liverpool Sound City during 2012. The positivity they showed, the intense joy they bought to the stage was matched stride for stride by their ability and infectious music.

The Manchester band have not sat idly by and let the last year go past in sea of tranquil repose, resting on their laurels or even thinking they had made it. This is a band that is very serious about what they do and this work ethic stands them in good stead, so much so that they were an excellent addition to The Fratellis’ return to centre stage at the 02 Academy in Liverpool.  If the Fratellis gig was a re-introduction to one of the most exciting acts of the last decade then The Kill Van Kulls time on stage was an overture, a seismic blast in preparation for the future and the threesome more than made the most of their allotted time on the Academy stage.

Christopher Milton, Gareth Bartlett and Ben Mousley not only remain looking comfortable on stage but on a night when expectation was already high in anticipation of the return of the band that made, for a short while a decade swing to a different beat, they took on the expectation and gave a skilful and honest account of their own work. By the end of their set they certainly had a number of more supporters thrilled by their music than when they came on stage, and quite rightly so.

With tracks such as Wooden Heart, Lost & Found and Light making their way into the set, the sometimes impossible task of a support act warming up the main band’s adoring audience was easily met and with the fantastic Oceans and Impossible Man also being performed with great sentiment and agility, the three men from other side of the M62 were given a resounding burst of spontaneous applause from major sections of the crowd.

They may have gone down a storm at last year’s Sound City, this time they came back and owned the stage like never before.

Ian D. Hall