At The Lanes, Wednesday 10th November 2021
The Lanes seems to be becoming a regular haunt of mine, it’s always so bustling with amazing live music and interesting people that it’s hard to not be drawn into its aura. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, The Lanes really is an oasis of culture inside the city centre. A special thank you to Miles from Gravy Train for being an excellent host, and Lorenzo for the always impeccable sound!
First out the gate this evening was Shoun Shoun, who blended a fine mix between garage rock and 80’s synthpop. First thing that struck me was the inclusion of a electric-violin, at first I was a bit put off as to the uninitiated this might have been seen as a bit superfluous outside of Han Zimmer concert, but Boris from Shoun Shoun pulled it off impeccably with catchy riffs and sinister haunting layering. Vocally the band lays somewhere between Gabriele Kerner (Nena) and Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) mixing both German and English lyrics masterfully, and whilst my German is very rusty I still got a sense of the emotions and meanings, a sign of a true songsmith!
Headlining tonight we had Freya Beer and her band,when they kicked off the set I first noticed the musical resemblance to Alexandra Savior finally dusted with a hint of Kate Bush. The vocals by Freya were immensely presented and masterful, big hits like Dear Sweet Rosie sounded twice as sweet as the recordings and really came alive during the set. A surprise to the set was the cover of 20th Century Boy by T-Rex which was very fitting due to the Mark Bolen esq prog jumpsuit bouncing the light around the room! Instrumentation wise it swayed from punkier sounds ala Cherry Glazerr , to more subtle overtones reminiscent of Emily Burns. A highlight of the gig for me was the song Beast (the title track of her new album) due to it’s immensely catchy vocal lines, we also got treated to brand new music so we heard it here first!
📝 @cam.mulberry
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