Gig reviews for April 2011

The Lysergic Suite at Firebug 16th April

As reported by Kevin Gaughan

Having arrived at Firebug nice and early for Daylight Frequencies it was good to see a decent number of people already in, although with a void at the front of the crowd, but it was early.

Daylight frequencies are four young lads from Leicester who have been together for only a couple of years, interesting name, designed to make you think and is open to interpretaion, let's see how they perform...

daylight frequencies at Firebug
Daylight Frequencies © Kevin Gaughan

Liking the sound, it wasn't fast, more slow and hypnotic, but with a sultry attitude making good use of the guitar effects. Haunting vocals from Luke Whittemore and oodles and oodles of moody atmosphere with plenty of deep, pounding guitars adding to the mix.

Psychedelia with attitude.

daylight frequencies at firebug
Daylight Frequencies © Kevin Gaughan

Man, I loved the sound and would really like to see them headlining somewhere. Having said that, they're not really in the Leicester scene at the moment, through no choice of their own, so I might have to wait a while.

They will be playing in the Love Music, Hate Racism festival in Barnsley and will then be touring in France.

Daylight Frequencies on MySpace.

Next up, Buster Shuffle, a four piece from London and an interesting addition to tonights line-up, mainly because their style of music was completely different from the other bands on bill.

buster shuffle at firebug
Buster Shuffle © Kevin Gaughan

Having said that, they did provide some good wholesome entertainment for the growing crowd with their humerous lyrics and confident chatter. They even allowed the crowd to choose the next song at one point resulting in a song about a bus route being played, which was probably in part due to me over-enthusiastically expressing my views about a particular bus to work that I usually miss!

So, the music, well it was very much Chas and Dave with the hip-shaking piano at full-pelt accompanied by plenty of charisma, jokes and funny, feel-good songs. Very dancable music and they provided a pleasant diversion to the proceedings.

Buster Shuffle web site.

buster shuffle at firebug
Buster Shuffle © Kevin Gaughan

After Buster Shuffle were the Lysergic Suite, a three piece electro-psychedelic rock band from Leicester who have been together for around a year and already are preceeded by an impressive reputation!

The Lysergic Suite are a three piece with Adem Custic on drums and programming, Liam Houchen on bass guitar and Gren Spencer on vocals, guitar and programming. Gren is also a producer who works with some big names as well as a lot of local bands.

I first saw the Lysergic Suite at the Leicester Strawberry Fields Fringe Festival in August 2010, their second ever gig, and remember the place filling up with photographers just before they came on, it seemed everyone else knew about them except me. What followed was an unforgettable performance which totally blew me away, since then I've been following the band closely making sure I see them at every opportunity.

Tonight at Firebug, there was a good sized audience in place, as the lights went off being gradually replaced by the purple, pink and blue lights and lasers pointing straight at you from behind the stage.

The haunting sound of the Indian Sitar from The Lysergic Suite's cover of Dum Maro Dum, and other samples taken from the song with the silhouettes of Liam and Gren and their guitars being traced by the lasers is an unforgettably atmospheric experience. The darkness makes it feel intimate, it feels like there's just you and the band with this incredible light show!

Dum Maro Dum is a truly spectacular way to start a show and acts as a phenominal intro to the rest of the set. All the classics that I've grown to love were there - with the slightly grundgy effects, but slower paced, In the Morning, which shows Gren's fantastic and distinctive voice off well, in which the green lasers were dancing off the smoke from the smoke machine producing hallucinagenic effects.

Another one of my favourites and a newer song, Jasmine, which will be released as a single in June, is more upbeat with echoing guitars and a fantastically addictive sound that you can both dance to and rock-out to. This is why the audience is cross-genre, because the music often has elements of a dance beat with added rockier guitar effects and psychedelic synths producing a spectacular combination. It doesn't just touch genres, it smashes them to pieces, making it compulsive whatever your taste.

Finishing off with one of my all-time classics, Earth and Water, it's chilling recorded samples of a man who called an American chat show desparately trying to let people know he was being chased by aliens before disappearing without a trace - even the authorities couldn't find him!

The band performed with a certain aura - with confidence, attitude and the showmanship of a band that have been around for many years. The audience was brimming with excitement and anticipation in the same way that it would if a big band were performing a small intimate gig for the first time.

They are constantly progressing too, in the nine months since I first saw them, The Lysergic Suite have added three or four new songs to their set and have introduced the best light show I've ever seen... what will they do next, I wonder?!

After the single launch in June, The Lysergic Suite will release the much anticipated debut album later in the summer. They are also doing a couple of collaborations with Kav (ex-Happy Mondays, now in his own, self titled band) and will be touring extensively around the country for the rest of the year but, unfortunately, have no festivals in the pipeline as yet.

They're also putting together a documentary video as well as getting on with their day jobs!!!

Next gig is at The Pier at Cleethorpes on Sat, 30 April - and I can't bloomin' wait!!!

The Lysergic Suite on MySpace.

Click below to see The Lysergic Suite perform on the night:

Dum Maro Dum

Jasmine

In the Morning

Earth and Water

Or click here to see a new song or here to see another song performed on the night.