Saturday 28th February 2015
Night showcases young bands
OBS at The Musician
by Trevor Locke
Music in Leicester likes to celebrate bands. We particularly like to celebrate the work of the next generation of bands – the teenagers who are the future of of live music. OBS gives young bands a chance to play at The Musician; not all of them will be able to do this in the formative stages of their careers.
Tonight’s show featured five bands that are making waves in Leicester:
Mid City, Flight15, Before The Crash, Stating The Obvious and special guest band The Chase.
Before The Crash
Opening tonight’s show Before The Crash’s lead singer gave an impressive performance; a band that has worked hard on its development – effort that has clearly paid off. When we saw them on Wednesday 4th February 2015 at the FourPointOh headline show at The Shed, we said
A band that has really been making its mark recently is Leicester’s Before The Crash. The band will be performing at the Glastonbudget Festival in May. Tonight they were driven forward by an animated performance by lead singer Shezza Wileman with additional vocals from guitarist Hayden Hodgkinson. Their songs packed plenty of punch, whether playing their own songs or covers. Before The Crash is a band that had come a long way since they first started to play and Shezza Wileman put in a lot of vigour and excitement into her singing. Really Good [Music in Leicester]
Mid City
Previously on Music In Leicester we said:
One of our featured bands, Mid City maintained the standard of their previous appearances. A good band with a strong lead vocalist, some backing vocals and an animated stage presence. If I had any reservations it would only be that their set lacked one killer song that everyone would remember on the way home. Read more about Mid City on Music in Leicester
The Chase
This year’s OBS shows have introduced the performance by a guest band. Tonight the guest act as The Chase. This trio from Nottingham delivered a quality performance. Here is what we said about them on a previous appearance:
A young band with an impressive performance and enjoyable songs, they gave us a nicely varied set. A remarkably mature set, from a band that is clearly musically well-educated. A talented group of teenagers, they have an EP coming out soon. A band that is well worth seeing; am sure they will want to play in Leicester again soon and to work up a fan base here. Excellent.
Stating The Obvious
The fourth band to take to the stage was Stating The Obvious. The band opened with a cover by Green Day Holiday, with the line This is the dawning of the rest of our lives. This popular band drew the audience down to the front. With three vocalists at the front that produced the best group singing of the night. Lively and enjoyable. they made their set into a show. Alongside covers of popular pieces, they also sang their own songs. Theirs was a solidly good performance; a young band that oozed professionalism, they caught the mood of the audience with their renditions of songs by Oasis and The Beatles. On stage they really did look like they were enjoying what they were doing.
Flight15
The final band of the evening was Flight15. Their first song delivered an explosive opening to their set giving us a rocket-propelled start to their show that had the audience bouncing. Full of sparkle and fireworks, the three musicians of this Leicester band their lead singer had considerable command of the microphone. I have seen this band several times before and they have started to really impress me. With their razor-sharp timing and songs that were volcanic in their impact, it was difficult to believe that only three musicians could generation such a large sound. Their songs had the audience punching the air with their fists. With a cover by The Kings of Leon, a proper dancing tune, these teenagers demonstrated that they knew how to play good music. Ending with The Who’s My Generation they brought a night of good music to a climax.
We saw Flight15 on 11th February when they performed at the Cystic Fibrosis charity gig. It was a performance that we summed up with the word ‘sensational.’ They got up on the stage and smashed it. Flight15’s performance tonight ranked with the best we have seen in recent years. We have seen many good trios over the years but Flight’s performance tonight was one of the most exhilarating. Singer Reuben Wisner said “it’s become quite rare that I’m impressed as I was by Flight15. Their talent and professionalism absolutely blew me away. I definitely want to see these guys again.”
With such a good line-up of bands, the judges had a difficult choice to make but there could only be one winner.
Going through to the finals from tonight’s show: Flight15
See also:
French Leave
