Brian Lightning | Ollie Cook dinner | Foyer
Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
Sunday twenty ninth December 2024
Tis the season to be quirky – introducing a Lightning, Cook dinner and Foyer Christmas, wherein three of Birmingham’s most original and compelling acts be part of forces for a sensational, seasonal gig within the Second Metropolis. Moustaches most well-liked, however not important. Sam Lambeth opinions.
You’d be forgiven for considering you’ve entered a time warp when setting foot in Kings Heath tonight. Many of the males right here, for a begin, are adorned in moustaches, proudly flaunting face fuzz like dads from the ’70s. The apparel is a wonderful anachronism, the sort you’d see frequenting Carnaby Road after catching a matinee of Quadraphenia. Even the lighting feels gloriously out-of-step with the current day. That is, after all, all a part of the plan.
For tonight is a step again in time the place three of Birmingham’s greatest up and coming acts, all of them with a heartwarming simpatico to the nice previous days, showcase their sounds. Tonight is bought out, with revellers of all ages eager to shake off the ennui of Christmas and get again to the lower and thrust of stay music.
Opening the present are Foyer. Think about a cross between Pet Sounds-era Seashore Boys and the idiosyncratic however hovering buzz of ’90s Flaming Lips, and also you’re in the best ballpark. The duo, fleshed out right here for the stay efficiency, have a particular knack for swirling psychedelica, stomping melodies and lovely boy/woman harmonies.
Their debut single Take Your Time has fairly rightly acquired rapturous plaudits and with extra songs set for launch subsequent 12 months, 2025 will definitely welcome extra zealots to go wait within the foyer.
Ollie Cook dinner can be not afraid to have a look again to a bygone period of music, albeit filtered by his personal prism of melodic, aching people. Recalling the ragged majesty of Neil Younger and the harmonica-laden melodies of Bob Dylan, Cook dinner and his band rattle by the golden, nostalgic sounds of his most up-to-date album Canine & Gun. Tight and centered, however with sufficient elasticity and appeal to not sound too inflexible, Cook dinner and co rustle up nugget after nugget of wistful earworms.
Brian Lightning‘s major man Ed Quigley has served his time within the Second Metropolis trenches, performing with a variety of totally different outfits through the years. With Brian Lightning, although, he appears probably the most assured and warranted he’s ever been. An skilled and charismatic frontman, he guides the band by a variety of lush, lilting rockers that mix the classicist sensibilities of The Lemon Twigs with the irresistible glam of Walt Disco. Attempt listening to the hazy, sun-tinged gallop of Milly the Shark with out smiling – you’ll be able to’t.
Although Foyer, Cook dinner and Lightning all look to the previous, it’s the best way they take these old-school components and adapt them to the current that makes all of them so compelling. Birmingham is in protected, and hirsute, fingers.
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Discover out extra about Brian Lightning, Ollie Cook dinner and Foyer.
All phrases by Sam Lambeth. Sam is a journalist and musician. Extra of his work for Louder Than Battle is obtainable on his archive. You will discover his music on Spotify.
All photographs by Eryn Macaulay.
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