RiD, Duke, The Circles. The Sunflower lounge 12/4/2013

I had a great time last night at The Sunflower Lounge. It was my first night there and it lived up to my expectations. The gig itself was in a pretty tiny room that lived up to the name lounge and the audience seemed to made up of people who were in the bands, friends of the bands or who worked at the venue. I'd come to see Duke, who I've become good friends with lately, and I wanted to see how they'd developed since I'd last seen them at the Red Lion. 

Took all the pics myself

First up was RiD, who were a bit of a surprise. The band are made of people of all ages, there's a guy in his 20s on guitar, a kid on bass who looks about 14, and the rest of the band who look a little bit older. they were surprisingly good though. The band has two singers, and the lady in the band has a fantastic voice. the sound was very britpop, moddish rock n roll. They're at their best when they're funky though, and as you might expect from a band who seem to come from many different backgrounds, they mix genres effortlessly. It was a full half hour show that they put on full of well crafted songs, and even a few good guitar solos towards the end (I'd have liked a few more of those)
I spoke to the band afterwards and they're all lovely people (The male singer bought me a Kronenbourg) they explained to me that the confusing name (first I thought they were called ID then Red) has been causing debate within the band. they explained that they felt it was poignant as they want to get 'RiD' of the bad elements of society, e.g. Bankers. I felt that the name seemed to fit in nicely with the bands sound, and they say that the lyrics reflect this too, so Ill have to listen more carefully. I think they should find a name that means something similar, but is easier to Google.

Edited with Microsoft picture manager

Next up were my mates Duke, who had a tough act to follow. Luckily for them they're sounding better than ever, the new songs from the upcoming EP are sounding good, possibly even better than those of the last one. The last time I saw them they were a 3 piece without a drummer or a proper sound system at my local pub. this time I saw them with a drummer, who I could tell just from the soundcheck is a great player. and the sound system let the band sound more professional, I was standing a bit too close to the speakers for most of it and it was pretty loud.
Halfway through Jack and the other guy on guitar let the other two go to the pub while they played a cover of 'Don't Look Back in Anger'. It might not have been the sing-along they wanted but at least it showed that they could play a spot on Oasis cover, which makes sense considering the similarities in their own songs.
The rest of the band came back on just in time to finish off the gig. They got back on with playing their own songs and as it turns out 'One Way Road' is a song about the recession. They ended the half hour set with 'The Best is Yet To Come' which was a great last song to bow out with, if the band have an anthem then this is it. Its great seeing how far this band have come in such a short amount of time, it'll be great seeing where they can go from here.
I spoke to Jack afterwards who said he was 'bollocksed' I'd never heard that word before, its basically an abbreviated way of saying 'sweating my balls off'

Next up was The Circles, who despite being the headline band, I had never heard of them. I wasn't really paying much attention to them to be honest. I explained to Duke later that I wasn't flattering them when I thought they were better.  Still they weren't bad though, these three lads came on looking like the sort of people who'd work at the Urban Village. I reckon the singer looks a lot like me too. These guys were pretty moddish, even ending on a cover of My Generation, that sounded pretty much exactly like the who's original. the bands own songs were all full of sha la-la and other chant based choruses. Very 60's very moddish, I preferred the other two bands, but they were pretty good. The crowd definitely loved them.

I got a lift back from Duke as they live not far from me, I was making them giggle with my stories all the way home. So yeahh a good night (though the first thing had to do when I got home was lure my cat back indoors for half an hour)

https://www.facebook.com/thecirclesuk
https://www.facebook.com/RiDpage?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/DukeMusicOnline?fref=ts