Opening with a Skinny Love cover, with a simple spotlight on his back and – from what I can tell – a “trademark” bobble hat, Oxford’s Lewis Watson regaled an already healthily-sized audience with half a dozen or so songs; some his own, some from his upcoming debut EP. Watson is quite well known for his cover versions, and his original and mainstream TV-exploiting approach to them. Controlled and clear in voice, and with a textbook ‘less’ approach to guitar playing, sure there were a few mistakes, but even at these early days in his career he’s got a ridiculously strong following – 15,000 Twitter followers – and while popular covers can be an attraction, I’d suggest a lot of interest is in the potential on show here. I think his may be a journey worth being a part of.
Boat to Row are a five piece from Birmingham, that thankfully you can’t tell are from there. With a vocal style similar to the Decemberists, Michael King delivers each song with an understated passion. This is a fundamentally likeable band, with a musical understanding of eachother that leads to a professional and engaging performance. They have markedly individual songs, from a genre with many potential pitfalls that Boat To Row keep away from, using driving rhythm and focused instrumentation rather than ‘folk for folk’s sake’. These are poignantly worded, well-constructed songs, with good-time musical interludes to mask their potentially heavy nature. These guys are easy to listen to, and not so insistent that you love them right now – but they have such a self-assurance in their music that you will in time.
Going to see a band in order to see one or two songs probably isn’t the worst thing anyone’s ever done. However, I think anyone approaching Dog Is Dead with that mindset tonight will have been blown away by the plethora of great music for them to get their… ears into. Dog Is Dead, on the back of a glorious festival season in 2009, were featured in Skins. Like many others before them, having gained popularity through mainstream media they have had to spend their time reminding people that they have other songs. Other glorious songs, other wonderful endorphin-inducing songs.
From the opening of their set, without prior knowledge you’d be hard pushed to pigeonhole these Nottingham boys. Introducing themselves with a dark, metallic opening, and following with an almost chillwave offering, the harmonies are always there and pretty soon Trev’s brass is thrust to the forefront of attention. The marvellous ‘Talk Through The Night’ is a highlight of a great set, along with the expected adulation for ‘Young’, and despite the surprise omission of ‘Zoo’ the euphoria is reserved for ‘Glockenspiel Song’. One danger of seeing Dog is Dead is that they’ll be stuck in your head for days afterwards but there’s worse things to have in there.