So they say rock ‘n’ roll is dead. So Paul Gambaccini reckons that it’s over, that all that’s left in the musical wasteland now is R’n’B and hip-hop to fulfil our melodic needs. But 2011 has seen something of a revival. Titans of the modern rock scene have all made welcome comebacks; Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes to name three. There’s new blood breaking through too, the likes of The Vaccines, Miles Kane and The Joy Formidable coming through the ranks. And no-one’s mentioning its demise as Brother storm into town.
Love them or hate them, the Slough four-piece are fast becoming one of the bands of 2011, having made ripples across the continent and over in the U.S. Fresh from playing David Letterman among others, Brother are early on in their first U.K. headline tour when the lads hit Portsmouth’s Wedgewood Rooms this Thursday – and promptly blow it away.
Set opener ‘Electric Daydreams’ and the Stone Roses-influenced ‘Shoot Like Lightning’ go down well enough; good tunes greeted by bobbing heads, but it’s then that things change. ‘We wanna see you dance for this one’ frontman Lee Newell and with the first guitar strums of second single ‘Still Here’, utter hysteria breaks out.
For a band that is two months away from releasing their first album, each song is met with a remarkable amount of familiarity. The rampant crowd lapped up ‘High Streets Low Lives’, ‘David’ and ‘Fly By Nights’, all similarly guitar led and all with that anthemic release. It’s not hard to see why the band has been thrown in with the ‘Britpop’ crowd; it’s a combination of Gallagher-esque vocals, Blur-like ‘ooo’s’ and indie rock pace. Add in the frequent stage banter and the home-coming of bassist Josh Ward, there’s a feel-good factor in the Wedgewood Rooms tonight.
The best receptions of the night are for the released songs, which with the proper exposure could become the anthems of the summer. All with irrepressible hooks, huge choruses and that anthemic quality that instantly endears them. First, the instant guitars of ‘Darling Buds of May’, then the euphoric odyssey of ‘New Year’s Day’, but their finest is left until last – the swelling release of ‘Time Machine’. All three met with what can only be described as mania from the ‘lads’ diving in front of each other to get closer. Lead guitarist Sam Jackson, on form all night, tops it off with a stage dive at the finale. Brilliant.
You do get the feeling that one day you will be able to say ‘I saw Brother back in the day’. The four of them are incredibly tight; their musical quality was phenomenal and no-one can deny the songs, there’s a freedom and release built into the chords. There’s been many bands overhyped before; and it’s easy to forget that Brother were only signed last October, but their meteoric rise shows no signs of stopping just yet.
NWR
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