Norwich, England, on an almost winter Sunday night isn’t nearly as glamourous as it sounds. What? Oh. The draw tonight is the promise of seeing Francis & Louis at a record label launch in a pub called The Birdcage, but used to be called The Pottergate Tavern, in the olden days. I know this because I used to work in record shop just up the road, in the olden days. Back then, if people wanted to listen to music, they had to buy the stuff from somewhere. Imagine.

So, anyway, Francis & Louis. Moshi Moshi’s gentle 10-year trundle into your ears has been like a country-sized carpet being slowly unrolled. So much so, it seems as a label, they have been generationally inspiring, if that’s an expression. If it’s not, it is now.

As James – my guide for the evening – points out, the eight bands on show here do 21st century punk rock. Punk rock where the young are mildly annoyed by stuff, and everyone sits down. Singers, audience, the pub cat, the lot.

Much to my amazement, it’s quite a treat.

The label, Bare-Feet, is the brain child of Leeds-based producer David Nickerson and Norwich musical royalty, Alex Carson. A rummage is worth your time as it will serve up some real curios – we like The Middle Ones enormously, and think Chessboard Fanatics are interesting, if the piano got more of a workout, and the banjo less of one.

Francis & Louis, though, are a class apart as James knows, which is why we’re here. The sound – a small PA in a small backroom – is the same for everyone, yet F&L sound fuller and richer through it, and have considerably more thrum than the other seven acts put together.

Louis, or Lucy to her friends, is utterly captivating, playing a guitar like a drum – twanging out a bass rhythm, she adds a thump here, a tap there – it’s the old Jack White trick of making more sounds with one instrument than seems poss.

But it’s the singing bit where F&L really step up. Louis takes the lead with an unnerving wobble to her voice that is almost spooky and at times sounds so delicate, so fragile, scooping it up and putting it in your pocket to keep it safe seems sensible. All the while Francis’ more powerful voice – while wandering in and out, seemingly unplanned and like it was the most natural thing in the world – acts like the punctuation marks. I’m assured there’s more and better to come, that they can swap lead vocal duties with ease and that Francis has an extra gear which is quite, quite gobsmacking.

Being on a bill with seven other acts, and on a Sunday night to boot, means only three songs. But for now, that was quite gobsmacking enough. We’ll settle for the goosebumps at 20 paces, thanks very much. It’s all quite, quite magical.

More hear…
- The MS, natch. Wondering at what point to bands start choosing names based on MySpace availability?
- Check the ‘infix mix’ of the corking ‘Right Or Wrong’ on their MS. There’s something vaguely ‘Sing It Back’ about it. F&L, also available for disco dancing.
- If you are in Norwich, England (no idea why you would be, it is in the middle of nowhere), the girls are on at the Arts Centre on November 28.