Gig reviews for January 2011

Charlie and the Martyrs at the Musician, 14th January

There was a medium-sized crowd in the Musician tonight which I found surprising given the popularity and success of Charlie and the Martyrs and I know Us Wolves can pull a decent-sized crowd, too, so I was expecting the Musician to be heaving, especially as it was a Friday night.

Still, first on were Us Wolves, tonight was to be an acoustic set with only James on vocals and guitar and a young lady to add a smooth voice with some cheeky humour between tracks which served well to lighten the mood.


Us Wolves © Kevin Gaughan

The acoustic set was very enjoyable, James has a fairly distinctive voice, so it sounded like a watered down Us Wolves and worked rather well. I was a bit dissapointed, however, because I was expecting a full Us Wolves set, which would have been rock heaven, instead we got an accomplished, but mellow and watered down version, which wasn't advertised.

Us Wolves on MySpace


The Kinells © Kevin Gaughan

Next up were the Kinells, they bought an up-tempoed indie feel to the night. Their songs were laiden with good-humoured lyrics and were quite melodic, with the odd more guitar based rockier song added to the mix. Good use was also made of the mouth organ at times, too.

All in all, an accomplished band, very well performed with energetic, quite catchy and highly enjoyable sounds, prominently of an indie genre with humerous lyrics - that's the Kinells.

Click here to watch some of the Kinells' performance on the night.


Charlie and the Martyrs © Kevin Gaughan

The Kinells were closely followed by the wonderful Charlie and the Martyrs. I won't write much about them here as we've covered them quite extensively in these pages.

You can't help but notice the wonderful voice and amazing talent of Charlie Jones. The very well written music is always performed faultlessly. Their unique style I won't even attempt to fit into a genre. Pure class. They rounded off the night perfectly.

Click here to watch a video of Charlie and the Martyrs' performance on the night, or here or here.

Charlie and the Martyrs on MySpace