Saturday 28th June 2014.
FourPointOh at The Shed.
A night mounted by Leicester band FourPointOh in the main area, with a another show taking place downstairs. Two gigs for the price of one.
With Deep Red Thread, Themisto, Evanstar
Upstairs the show was opened by Deep Red Thread. Playing a set of their own songs (and one cover), they were good. Boy were they good.
This Leicester band has come on so well since they started. With strong vocals and plenty of presence from lead singer Sophie Garner, it was a top-class performance. DRT played at the Finals of I Wanna Be A Rockstar, this year. We said ‘The band pushed powerful beats into the room from the word go and then went straight into their second song which also put out a thumpingly good set of belting rhythms.’ and added ‘Noted for an impressive standard of playing and a stage performance that means business, the band is attracting a fair following of fans and is finding its place in Leicester’s gigs market.’ [Music in Leicester]
Tonight DRT was on fine form, delivering a great set of songs with guitar work that was rad, powerful tunes and supercharged rhythms. A good start to the evening.
Themisto brought their set of instrumental (only) tunes to the stage. Instrumental bands are rare but most of us will immediately think of Leicester band Maybeshewill.
The four-piece group had a set of sounds with solidly good atmosphere, ear-licking chords and scintillating riffs. Instrumental bands have to be good, their musicians have only their playing to grab the audience. Themisto’s commitment, skills, focused playing and captivating tunes were excellent. They grabbed the audience.
Evanstar have been around for a long time. I seem to remember some of them when they were in Kill The Batman. They had a set of rockin’ songs lead by the full-on vocals of lead singer Stuart James Instrell. It was a well-polished performance from a band with some experienced musicians. They played their own songs and has their own sound. So, that was good. Evanstar played last year at Sumo, supporting Belgium band Airco and Leicester bands Neon Sarcastic and Formal Warning. Kevin Gaughan wrote:
A four-piece ‘Modern Rock’ band from Leicester, Evanstar – formed only last year and already about to release their second single (Wounds, on 5 May 2013.) Full of energy, with well written, emotion-laden and sometimes powerful lyrics, Evanstar provided the gig with hard-hitting, dynamic and commercial rock music. By no means ‘hard’ rock, but definitely rock. With Stoo on vocals providing some entertaining and even humorous chatter between songs, these guys were good to watch and even better to hear. [Arts in Leicester magazine, 16th March 2013]
Headlining the main stage tonight was FourPointOh, with their new guitarists Olly Evans and Lewis Danes.
One of our local top hard rock bands, ‘4.0’ have undergone some line-up changes recently, with guitarists Robert Fulton-Hamilton having left the band and Lorenzo Morandi being on a long-term sabbatical.
So, tonight the string work was supplied by Lewis and Olly, but the vocals were still those of bass-playing Rebecca Woolman.
It was pleasing that tonight we could see two of the top female lead singers at one show. Members changing notwithstanding, it was still a good set of hard rock songs, exhilarating, irresistible and jubilant.
We featured FourPointOh when they played on 1st February, again at The shed. It was the band’s Young and Wasted album launch. Jamie Borland commented “The moment everyone was waiting for. FourPointOh took to the stage, the pit opened up and mayhem rained down. FourPointOh was used to a good crowd but I believe the crowd tonight surprised them. Rob struggled to play his solos with so many hands reaching up to him, people crowd surfing, a huge wall of death opened up, the crowd singing Bohemian Rhapsody even though that was just an intro to the band’s last song of the night, it was just an absolutely brilliant night – one that FourPointOh and all the fans will never forget and The Shed won’t forget either.”
MIL made FourPointOh its Band Of The Month in January this year.
In the basement bar I caught a bit of the set by Cry Wank, tonight performing a solo set. I had not seen this guy before but I was sufficiently impressed by the bit I did see to write in my notebook ‘This guy could be following in the foot-steps of Jake Bugg.’ On Crywank’s bandcamp page it says – ‘Crywank are a Manchester based anti-folk band. They mostly write sad songs and have been told they are the worst named band in the country.’ Billed as being an anti-folk, punk, outsider, he usually plays with a drummer. Judging from their Facebook page, they are a fairly big act.
Follow tonight’s bands on Facebook: Deep Red Thread, Themisto, Evanstar and Fourpointoh; and Crywank.
See also:
Our coverage of the Foxton Locks Festival.
Our review of a gig at The Shed on 21st June.
