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The Clientele Dry Off in Buffalo

As the remains of Hurricane Ernesto soaked the northeast, London’s the Clientele staved off the dreariness with their dreamy ’60s-style pop at Buffalo’s Mohawk Place Saturday night. Though their music lightened moods of the dampened crowd, singer Alasdair Maclean and his band were visibly road weary, with Buffalo being their second to last show of the current tour. The band’s reverb-heavy sound is a source of both nostalgia and melancholy, with Maclean pulling out the sad even further when he introduced “I Can’t Seem to Make You Mine.” “This is a song for romantics,” he said, earning a roar of approval. “Too bad I don’t believe in that anymore,” he quipped, eliciting a chorus of “awwwws.” The band toured with new multi-instrumentalist Mel Draisey, who filled in the Louis Philippe-arranged strings off the band’s 2005 album, Strange Geometry. She also left the male hipster set swooning as she disappeared quickly after the set with her boyfriend.

The Clientele close out their tour in New York at the Knitting Factory tonight. After the tour, the band will head to Nashville to record their next album. EVAN PARKER PIERCE / PHOTOS BY SAL VIGLIETTA

On SPIN.com:
The Clientele: SPIN.com Artist of the Day