Live review: The Lottery Winners with The Racket –Thekla, 07/09/2021

As a band that has not stopped pumping out new music, with banger after banger coming out, when I saw that The Lottery Winners would be playing in Bristol, I just had to see them live.

First, what a venue for the band. Summer, dreampop songs and hot weather (and boy, it was hot) can only go with a boat. I don’t think they could have picked a better venue if they had tried.

The show was opened by The Racket, an indie-punk 4 piece from Widnes (I had to look that up too, it’s near Liverpool). An absolute belter of an opening band, with looks that could kill, moves that could stop you in your tracks and style like no other. Even though lead man Callum Codd’s guitar strap broke halfway through a song, these guys kept playing all through.

For those who still haven’t checkout out The Racket yet, the best way I can describe them is if Liam Gallagher was a better singer, played better music, wrote better lyrics and wasn’t such a word-I-can’t-say. In short, these guys could hold anything from a small gig to a massive festival. One definitely on my ‘to see again’ list!

A short break, and then we were greeted by The Lottery Winners on stage. In keeping with the theme of the boat, Katie even came dressed as a pirate (or so Thom says). After saying their hellos, these guys got straight into it, playing tune after tune for the rest of the night.

As well as having released a new album back in 2020, The Lottery Winners have another new album coming soon – Something To Leave The House For, out 29^th October via Modern Sky UK. And did they plug it. I lost count of the number of times the album was mentioned, but it was a few. There was also a reminder that if you do pre-order the new album, you get entered into a competition to win a signed Fender Strat, or a one of a kind arcade machine. (you can pre-order here)

One of my highlights for the night has to be being part of what is going to be the music video for the song much better, which we were told is out soon. A catchy song, with a great, easy to learn chorus, this song got the whole crowd dancing and singing, even though we’d never heard it before. That takes a special kind of band to do that.

As the night carried on, we were treated to more new songs from the new album, as well as some of the older ones, including the band’s first ever song’s, both as a full band (young love) and before drummer Joe joined the band (Emerald City). Oh, and Frank Turner was invited on stage for the song Start Again. (spoiler, he didn’t show)

Finally, to bring it all to a close, and one the band didn’t have to teach us the chorus for, 21 got the whole dance floor singing, jumping and dancing along. Although there may have been a mix of ages at that show, everyone was acting like they were 21, and having a great time for it.

And that was it, and incredible performance from the whole band, who even hung around outside to take pictures and chat to fans.

I’d like to thank The Lottery Winners for inviting me along to see them and take pictures of the show, and I cannot wait to see them again soon at Lost Evenings!

Review by Ted Stargatt

Full photo gallery available here.