The Boy Least Likely To - The Railway, Winchester - 11th December 2010 (Live Review)
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Written by Dave Ball
My biggest bug bear with live music at the moment is that you don’t generally get value for money. That was never an issue with ‘The Boy Least Likely To’ with a whopping four different bands performing for a bargain £7.50 per ticket if bought in advance.
First, the venue. The Railway is a small pub in Winchester with the room used for gigs found by entering a small door to the side of the main bar and going up two small flights of steps before emerging into a space which holds somewhere around 120 people.
As we arrive the first of two local bands are playing. I wasn’t able to catch the name of the opener but the second band We Are Teeth are particularly good. Most notably with their lead off track ‘Let It Burn’. I’m more impressed when I overhear somebody saying it’s the first time they’ve performed it. Tight drumming, good vocals and aggressive guitars make their 20 minutes very enjoyable.
Band number three are The Candle Thieves who I’m familiar with having seen them support Badly Drawn Boy a few months back. Unfortunately the bulk of the crowd appear to have been friends and family of the local performers leaving a fairly sparse audience of around 40 people for their set. They push on undisturbed and treat everyone who has remained to 30 minutes of melancholic pop music and fun involving balloons, inflatable sharks and a variety of instruments. Singer Scott McEwen’s rendition of ‘Stars’ as he walks through the crowd is stunning and, if there’s any justice in music they will play to bigger crowds soon.
On to the main event and The Boy Least Likely To find the room close to full once they arrive on stage. I must admit, I went into this gig pretty much blind with regard to them and my first impression was that it was a bit Arcade Fire Lite as 6 people play a combination of guitar, drums, violin and harmonised vocals evoking memories of the Canadian giants. However, from here on in they move through a variety of styles.
With it being close to Christmas and a special Christmas album for sale at the merchandise stand they are keen to showcase some of their festive tunes which go down well. The most memorable track of their festive section a track called ‘Blue Spruce Needles’ which show off lead singer Jof Owen’s impressive vocals.
Other highlights of the main set include ‘Monsters’, ‘I’m Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon To Your Star’ which probably gets the biggest dance of the night and ‘When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade’. The main set is closed by a thoroughly bizarre but equally enjoyable Christmas track, ‘George & Andrew’, which is played roughly to the tune of Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’.
A discussion follows about an encore where they decide, as they would have to walk through the crowd to get out and come back, they’ll just play through. The set closer ‘Be Gentle With Me’ is my favourite track of the night and it appears I’m not alone as it is warmly received.
Overall this was a good nights entertainment, however there were a few niggling issues. The band themselves mention on various occasions about mistakes made and the set isn’t as tight as you’d like. Things also seem surprisingly disorganised for a band headlining a tour. If this were a school report you’d be left with a comment along the lines of ‘promising but lots of room for improvement’.
Stereoboard Gig Rating: 6/10
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Band number three are The Candle Thieves who I’m familiar with having seen them support Badly Drawn Boy a few months back. Unfortunately the bulk of the crowd appear to have been friends and family of the local performers leaving a fairly sparse audience of around 40 people for their set. They push on undisturbed and treat everyone who has remained to 30 minutes of melancholic pop music and fun involving balloons, inflatable sharks and a variety of instruments. Singer Scott McEwen’s rendition of ‘Stars’ as he walks through the crowd is stunning and, if there’s any justice in music they will play to bigger crowds soon.
