Josh Rouse

Howie Beck has just woken up. Or at least that’s the impression Canada’s favourite bedsit singer-songwriter gives as he takes the stage at a packed Matt and Phred’s, armed only with acoustic guitar and harmonica. “My band couldn’t make it over,” he explains.

Laidback but catchy, Beck’s REM-influenced melancholia doesn’t immediately capture the chattering audience’s attention. But as he warms up (or should that be wakes up?) he goes some way to justifying his cult popularity. The slow and hypnotic ‘The One You Wanted’ (from last year’s album ‘Hollow’) builds up to a quietly thrilling crescendo, the tousled singer chanting “If I could be the one you wanted, if I could be the one you wanted.”

Beck’s lyrics are worth hearing, so it’s a shame that tonight they are for the most part inaudible, due more to his drowsy mumble than the club’s acoustics, it should be pointed out. Though you can tell the man has class, it’s just as obvious that tonight is not one of his best performances. 5/5 for style, 3/5 for substance.

With a couple of low-key acoustic balladeers as opening acts, you might expect Josh Rouse to be equally subdued. Oddly enough, he uses the intimate setting of the jazz club to bring out the rocky element of his third and most recent album, ‘Under Cold Blue Stars’, impatiently waving at the reluctant sound man to turn it up at every opportunity.

Opening with the finger-pointing adultery ballad ‘Ugly Stories’, Rouse follows with three of the album’s strongest songs, the swaying title track, the upbeat ‘Miracle’, and a storming rendition of ‘Feeling No Pain’, undoubtedly one of music’s most exciting declarations of love. By now the audience are perched on the unsteady wooden chairs to catch a glimpse of the diminutive Nebraskan.

Rouse’s influences aren’t hard to fathom – The Smiths, U2, Neil Young, The Cure – but he turns them into something definitively his own. It’s a shame such great songwriting and performing doesn’t get much attention anymore, but then I suspect Rouse, a moody troubadour in the mould of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, couldn’t care less, and neither could the appreciative Manchester crowd.

That said, almost every gig has its low-points, and Rouse’s is no exception. If you’re going to do a cover version, why choose The Kinks? And then why the charmless ‘A Well Respected Man’? ‘Under Cold Blue Stars’’ sparse closer ‘The Whole Night Through’ is here embellished with pounding drums and droning keyboard. The resulting effect sounds alarmingly like ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’, a point my friend helpfully illustrates by singing the words to the 1984 Band Aid blockbuster over Rouse’s effort.

That said, for the rest of the gig Rouse is clearly liberated by performing live, injecting a passion and energy into his songs that is not always evident on his albums. His live band gel instinctively, with guitarist Curt Perkins adding some delicious countrified harmonies on the title track from Rouse’s debut, ‘Dressed Up Like Nebraska’.

For an encore, the band take everyone by surprise with a thrilling, note-perfect rendition of The Cure’s ‘In a Forest’. Fantastic.

The Manchester gig was the last of only three UK dates on Rouse’s European tour, but his cold blue star is rising, and he will doubtless be back. In the meantime, ‘Under Cold Blue Stars’ is unequivocally recommended.