Tonight
I headed down to the Fleece in Bristol to see
the mighty Toseland live for the third time and
this time was a slight special occasion as the
tour coincided with the release of their new 3
track EP ‘Heart And Bones’ and also
happened to be one of the last shows of a lengthy
tour which saw them play pretty much all over
the country.
We got into the venue as the first support band
The Vigil took to the stage a band who are from
Bristol and formed back in 2011 with a love for
Nirvana, Queens Of The Stone Age and all things
grunge but sadly the band failed to make an impact
tonight they looked extremely stale on stage and
the sound
levels were all over the place with everything
bleeding into one big mess, on the plus side though
drummer Nic Appelgren was energetic throughout
and made his mark and most eyes were on him throughout
the bands set, front man Olly Smith also had a
bit of charm about him and proved to be energetic
through the set but sadly bassist Dom Mehigan
and guitarist Nick Romer looked stale on stage
and lacked any excitement and interaction with
the crowd, at points there were some good riffs
but they were shortly lived.
The
main support band tonight were grunge-rockers
with a punk rock edge Rival State and they were
fantastic and unleashed pure energy from the moment
they stepped on stage right until the second they
left the stage and it seemed that they brought
some hardcore fans with them tonight as there
were a select few members of the audience who
were loving every minute bopping along and spilling
their beer in the excitement.
The
band managed to fit in the majority of songs from
their debut ‘Youth Tax’ EP plus a
couple of other songs and their set consisted
of ‘Sisters Of Fate’, ‘ Aces,
‘FourLeafClover’, ‘Modern Living’,
‘Gutter Mouth’, ‘Keep Sake’
and set closer ‘Sleep Talker’ and
left the stage truly warming the crowd up for
the headliners Toseland.
Toseland were up next and his backing band of
Zurab Melua, Ed Bramford. Roger Davis and new
drummer Joe Yoshida took to the stage straight
away for a massive jamming session which went
on for a good couple of minutes before James Toseland
energetically stormed the stage to loud screams
and cheers from his fans and blasted straight
into the racing bike themed ‘Crash Landing’.
Which was quickly followed up by the catchy ‘Comin’
To get Ya’ and ‘Life Is Beautiful’.
Now tonight was the third time for me seeing Toseland
on the live circuit and I have to say that they
have come on leaps and bounds since I first saw
them back in 2013 when they were supporting Reef,
tonight the whole band gelled and stood out on
their own for various different reasons including
new drummer Joe Yoshida with put on an amazing
show
even though he hasn’t been with the band
for long., whilst James Toseland himself came
across more confident than ever not that he has
ever lacked confidence as let’s face it
the man is a massive success in whatever he lays
his hands on.
As the set progressed Toseland played most of
their debut album ‘Renegade’ with
the likes of ‘Emergency’, ‘Burning
The System’ and ‘Singe In A Band’
going down a storm and not to forget ‘Reward’,
‘The Closer I Get’ and ‘Hearts
And Bones’ taken from their fantastic new
three track ‘Hearts And Bones’ EP,
the keyboard also came down as Toseland got serious
and rocked out to the beautifully keyboard driven
‘Kingdoms’ and ‘Just No Way’.
After
a short break Toseland returned for a song encore
with the show coming to an end with ‘Renegade’
the single which pretty much started it all for
Toseland and tonight the rendition was special
as the song got split up a bit so Toseland could
take time to introduce and thank each and every
one of his band members individually and it was
a moment the fans loved as they clearly appreciate
the talent in the whole band.
Before leaving the stage James Toseland announced
that they have signed a worldwide record
deal and thanked his fans for making it possible
and announced that their debut album ‘Renegade’
will be released in mainland Europe and America
this summer which left a very sweaty set of Toseland
fans leaving the Fleece on a Monday night on a
high knowing that one of their favourite artists
are finally getting the recognition they truly
deserve.
I have no idea when album number 2 is going to
drop but After the show that Toseland put on tonight
and the three top notch songs they have recently
released on their stop gap ‘Heart And Bones’
EP it is safe to say it is going to be well hyped
when details are announced.
Vigil 1/5
Rival State 3/5
Toseland 5/5
Review By Trigger
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