Last Night A Rock Band Saved My Life

Although it would make an amazing story, sadly last night a rock band didn’t save my life. But if I put that in the blog title then my rip off of 80’s one hit wonder song titles wouldn’t work. So just roll with me on this one people.

What did happen last night was that I found myself at the o2 Academy in Birmingham. I made that sound like I was just wondering the streets of Birmingham and stumbled in, but it didn’t quite go down like that, I had to buy a ticket and everything.  Shocking I know!

As you can probably guess, this isn’t a review; frankly I don’t know what it is. But I’ll try and keep you entertained regardless.

If you’ve taken any notice of anything I’ve written over the past couple of weeks you will know that I only went to the o2 to see one band and that was Face Of A Stranger, but I was interested to see what else was on offer. And I’ve got to say that I was really impressed with the band that opened the night. They are called Cower Hounds and I’d definitely recommend you have a look at them if you get the chance.

Face Of A Stranger were 2^nd on and the room had started to fill up nicely. Although the band won’t admit it I think they were maybe a little nervous starting out (This was the biggest night they had played after all) but they soon got into their stride. And it must have filled them with confidence to see that not only were the crowd interested, the crowd was growing. In my experience a brilliant guide as to how much a crowd like a band is by looking at how busy the bar is. The bar was empty.

One thing that I have noticed and frankly been impressed by on the occasions that I have seen the band is that fact that they look like they have been playing together for years. They have a great rhythm section. Every great band has a great rhythm section. Luke behind the drums is perfectly in tune with Ben on bass and they are both on the same page as Josh who does the majority of the rhythm guitar work. I cannot state how important I believe this to be, as this provides the foundation that holds everything together. If they weren’t as good at what they do as they are, the band would struggle. It provides the foundation for the other guitarist Joe and singer Mitch to go and really express themselves and get creative. One without the other wouldn’t work. Speaking of which the guitar solo from Joe in ‘The Road’ was outrageous, couple that with the way that the vocals are delivered with such passion, you can really ‘feel’ the song, you not only listen to it, you start to believe it.

By the last track the crowd and the band were both really enjoying themselves, and we even had time for an arena-style overhead hand clap, it may not have been Wembley Stadium but you could tell that to those in attendance it may well have been.

Sadly I had to bail out on the night early and drive home in what was basically a monsoon. As you can tell, I managed to do so without killing myself which is always a bonus. So ladies and gentlemen that’s all from me for now. But watch this space, big things may be ahead.