After the relative calm and easy start to Lost Evenings with a (mostly) acoustic night at the roundhouse, tonight was the first night where we could all properly let off some energy with some loud and dance along music.
Well, actually the first act of the night might not have quite been a full band loud show (on the NA stage), was the wonderful Misery Gutz – but his mum still calls him Charlie. Another new discovery for me, Charlie brought his own special energy and talent to the stage, and one I’ll definitely be seeing live again if I get the chance.
Pet Needs were the first band to perform on Fridays mainstage and opened the show with unrivalled energy. The Band performed songs off of their latest album ‘Fractured Party Music’ which the audience knew almost every line. Front man Johnny bounced across stage like a punk rock exorcism and took obvious enjoyment to the crowds lively response. About halfway through the band stopped to sell their merch through a criticism of hippie culture and the rhetoric ‘music is about the connection not the transaction’. Their on stage banter is certainly amusing, but it would certainly be made a lot better if it wasn’t exactly the same as every show they’ve played. Let’s hope they spice things up a bit when they are on tour with Frank next year.
False Heads were next to grace the NA stage. Unfortunately, due to the stage clashes, we didn’t really get chance to get a proper listen to these guys. However, from the one song we did catch I can say they were full of energy and rocked that little stage like it was a festival headliner – given the chance I think there would have been some stage dives!
Jamie Lenman’s set brought high energy and musical talent to the mainstage. His performance focused less on crowd interaction, yet still had great response from the audience. Lenman’s set was focused on the music and its self-proclaimed aggressive energy as he played for the audience not himself.
Although more loud and ‘metal’ than what Frank fans are used to, Lenman still held his own on that stage. I also have to mention the sheer musical talent of that guy, played like a full 4 piece band with just him and his drummer on stage!
Over to the NA stage one more time, for New Pagans. A band I’ve been meaning to check out for a while (and once sadly had to pass up on the offer to see them live), I can only say what a mistake that was. Another band bringing an insane level of energy with them, these guys rocked out hard. If you do ever get the chance to see these guys live, don’t do what I did, go see them!
And then it was time for the first Frank and the Souls show of the weekend. After coming on stage to an intro that hasn’t been used for a good few years, Frank and the band exploded straight into Live Fast Die Old, an instant crowd singalong. Followed on by Once We Were Anarchists and Back In The Day, it will be hard to top that opener for the rest of the weekend. Credit where credits due, Frank nailed the guitar intro to Back In The Day.
Throughout the rest of the night, we were treated to a whole mix of songs from the first three albums, there was a fair few that it was our first time hearing!
During the set, Frank managed to smash two more guitar solos – Nashville Tennessee and Haven’t Been Doing So Well (we’ll get onto that later). The rest of the Souls played their hearts out, especially new guy Callum, playing a lot of these songs live for the first time.
It is really difficult to put into words just how good this set was, a massive range of songs. That was until the encore.
If you’ve read my reviews before you’ll know how much I hate encores anyway, but in case you haven’t, I think they are a waist of time, just stay on stage and play another song. But this encore just wasn’t right to me.
After the walk off walk on bollocks, Frank told us he was going to play three news songs from FTHC, the new album. It felt as if he was trying too hard to plug the new album -we get it, it’s coming out next year. In a room full of fans who are likely to be buying and listening to it, it felt like a bit of a hijack to a night of the classics.
But anyway, after the new stuff was finished, it was back to four more of the old ones, four more singalong classics, and with all singing all dancing Photosynthesis to end it all for the night.
As always, a massive thanks to all crew and staff working this weekend. Without you guys it would all be nothing.
Lets see what tonight has to bring.
Review by Ted Stargatt and Lottie Williams.
TrueStyleMusic 