[23 Apr 2012] Miles Kane at Inverness Ironworks (IV1 1LX)

Miles Kane at the Ironworks, Inverness. Pictures: Alison White

YOU suspect there’s just loads more to come from Miles Kane, Esquire, after a rocked-out set at Inverness Ironworks that brought to mind everyone from the Modfather to the Godfather.

From Weller to James Brown, the mood, the moves and the majesty were all present and correct.

And Miles is a mover. A shaker. A croucher. A stomper. And an – ooh – monkey-lips strutting Jagger, if you’re asking.

He can move. And he can sing. Come to that, he can wear a good suit, flatter a classic Mod haircut, drip a bit of tasteful gold jewelry and remember that a gig, a great gig is all about performance.

Bearing witness were the hundreds who learned to love him quickly, if they didn’t already.

Pal Eugene McGuinness had warmed us up. He looked like a man – with a band – just counting down the days till the album is out and everything goes stratospheric. If life were fair, that would be the case. Eugene has already got himself the retro Alex Turner quiff, the understated leather jacket, the half-crouch and legs akimbo poses that signal you mean business, and a powerful voice echoed to hell in a kind of unflattering sound mix on the night, to be honest. But there was the promise of some really good songs and the band is already as tight as main stage headliners.

On Miles’ debut album Colour Of The Trap, first track Rearrange is a more timid, tentative thing, working beautifully to open the door of the long-player (er, vinyl LP to you, sonny).

But live it was transformed into a wilder beast and got Miles’ set off to a rocking start.

Already by song two, Counting Down The Days, he was throttling the living daylights out of his guitar’s neck with a little emphatic shake to make sure it was dead.

But no, it fought back and sang on even though the veins in Miles’ neck were already popping with the emotion of it all.

Yet the earliest high wasn’t till First Of My Kind – the current take-notice single – casually dropped in at fourth song of the night. Not used to kickstart a set or cynically held back to romp one home, it dinged the dial up to "really great".
Now that’s a song. And with the band’s keyboard-player swapping to trumpet, euphoria and just a little bit of post-punk sonic majesty circa Teardrop Explodes (look it up, rock children) entered the room.

Ever polite, Miles was never finished asking us how we felt or thanking us for coming out on a Monday night.
And while the rest of the band stayed workmanlike, Miles lived and breathed every note.

Though the songs from the debut album are subtly beefed-up for the live show, the Wirral wonder never looked more alive and liberated than in the two covers of the night.

His version of French rocker’s Jacques Dutronc’s song Le Responsable was maybe the second highest point in the set (1st Inhaler 3rd First Of My Kind).
You just have to go to YouTube to the first airing of the song live and on into this year’s Paris gigs to see how Miles has learned to own the rebel yell "WOAH!" that starts the song, now built into a psychokiller of a thing.
I’d be surprised if the Ironworks has ever seen a greater James Brownesque "WOAH!" complete with knock knees, windmilling arms, scrunched-up facial contortions and Rod Stewart-style husky screech at the back of the throat. And that was before we got "WOAH!" two and three.

And his huge version – complete with trumpet in the mix again – of Tom Jones’ song Looking Out My Window would be reason enough to dash out and buy the new single – it’s one of the B-sides.

Kingcrawler that followed let you really hear the space-age keyboards with the weird little "waa-aa-aa-aa" noises you get when the hero jumps 10 feet high in a bad kung fu movie.

Main set finale Inhaler was singalong heaven. And with encore Come Closer – following a lusty chanting of Miles’ name to get them back – all he had to do was wind the band up to supersonic speed before launching into the song proper.

Even after finally leaving the stage, the singer popped back for some last "Ah-ah-ahs" to incite extra "Oh-oh-ohs" from us.

Miles Kane’s single First Of My Kind is out now. For more on support Eugene McGuinness, including free song download, go to Facebook page eugenemcguinnessmusic and www.eugenemcguinness.net