Arriving
at the venue after doors open is never a good
way to judge the atmosphere of a gig, but it does
mean you can get in without long queues, and still
catch the first band!
Atticus Anthem, this 4 piece from Nottingham don't
have anything to do with the clothing label(as
far as I know) and play a rather bland form of
indie/pop/rock. They're a group of good looking
young lads which mean they go down well tonight
as the room is full off young girls. They play
a short set and do nothing spectacular, they sound
great though, with singer Bjorns wispy vocals
flowing smoothly over the harmonic strumming of
the guitars. They do what they do well, but they're
hardly ground breaking, don't expect them to be
the next big thing, just expect them to pass by
in the background unless they get a bigger sound.
Lilygreen and Maguire, are normally a 2 piece
but tonight are a 4 piece for that full band,
live feel. These are much better than the first
act and
again sound good. They play acoustic pop rock
songs, that are very upbeat and have very boy
band sounding vocals with high pitched harmonies
and the occasional New Kids On The Block ‘oh
oh oh oh's’ sounds thrown in for good measure.
They do a great job of working the crowd and chatting
between songs, it is easy to work this crowd though,
as at one point they ask ‘who has Twitter’
and most of the audience loudly screams, they
could have said who has Live Journal and have
got the same response. They play a nice set including
their number 66 UK chart hit called Ain’t
Love Crazy along with Falling Out Of Love. They
close their set with a covers medley including
Price Tag, Mr Brightside, Lazy Song, Someone Like
You, Don’t Stop Believing and No Woman No
Cry. They then get the crowd to join in and end
lines like “I say Go Go you say Power Rangers”
which as I said before, is easy to do tonight
as the crowd is up for anything. They do an ace
job of warming the crowd up and I can definitely
see them getting higher in the charts than 66
in the future as they’re very talented,
non-offensive pop, which always goes down well.
Speaking off non offensive pop the main band is
up now...
Scouting
For Girls come on stage to the Rocky theme to
a massive wall of screams. This band knows what
it’s doing, as they've been about for many
years and have played almost everywhere. Their
brand of pop rock is different to most out there
which makes them rather accessible and credible
at the same time as they play and write their
own catchy songs. I am surprised, as I thought
they would be rather rubbish, but to my dismay
they sound amazingly good, the drums over shadow
the vocals at times but for the most part they
sound clear and loud. The harmonies are sweet
and the keyboards add to their overall sound,
which is switched to a grand piano on other songs
to make a bigger sound. Singer Roy Stride doesn't
stop moving when he's not playing keyboard, he
prances about the stage making sure everyone can
see him and so he can engage the crowd in the
songs.
The
stage set up is great as it is lit up with lights
across the middle that look like flash bulbs and
go off on the beat of the drums in certain songs.
The Drums themselves are not centre stage(as is
normal at rock shows) and is off to the side,
the grand piano takes centre stage, which adds
to the atmosphere of the more grand songs.
They play a good set list including, old and new,
which gets the crowd singing along throughout.
It also allows me to judge the atmosphere now,
which is definitely fun and happy as they play
mainly love songs and tell the crowd that their
the 5th member of the band and how they need them
to sing along, which of course goes down to big
screams. They play songs such as; Heartbeat, Airplane,
Rains In LA, and they also play
the big hits Elvis Ain’t Dead and end on
She’s So Lovely. They also play I Wish I
Was James Bond, which they’ve not done for
a while, as it’s the 50th anniversary of
Bond. They play for almost an hour and a half,
which is really good for most ‘rock’
bands barely play for an hour. They get the crowd
very excited, so much so a woman near myself at
the bar, takes off her false leg and places it
down on the bar as she dances wildly.
People who are normal regular readers of AV might
turn their noses up at Scouting For Girls, but
I'd definitely recommend them as they know what
they’re doing, they interact well with the
crowd and they sound awesome.
Atticus Anthem 2.5/5
Lillygreen And Maguire 3/5
S couting For Girls 4/5
Review By James Daly
Photos By Robert Lawrence
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