Seemingly the biggest buzz-band of the minute, Brother, and their arrogant press mystique, have been stealing the covers of music press magazines as part of a Gallagher-esque renaissance.
But aside from the hype, the quartet, who arrived in Manchester on the back of fantastic support act, All The Young, had a lot to live up to in the newly refurbished Ruby Lounge.
Branded as “little posh boys with tattoos” by Liam Gallagher, Brother kicked off their self-labelled ‘Gritpop’ set with a track called ‘Fly by Night’, which inevitably had that Oasis-inspired twang and warmed up the crowd nicely.
Arriving on stage with a backing singer and an extra percussionist however does make you wonder whether they are quite as raw as we are led to believe.
Lead singer Lee Newell’s blatant arrogance and brash Brother demeanour, summed up by his statement that they decided to write some songs that turned out to be the best songs of the last 20 years, was surprisingly absent from Manchester however.
In fact after their opener, an over-excited audience member jumped on stage and rather than him being kicked off stage by Newell himself, he was welcomed on, as Newell said: “You can be our Bez”.
The Slough-natives then played the hum-along anthem ‘New Year’s Day’, with its gritty deep guitar soundtrack, harmonic vocal interludes and high pitched chorus, to really get the crowd going.
Soon after ‘Bez’ was taken off stage by a burly bouncer, with Newell saying that he felt sorry for him having to leave the stage. Not quite the ASBO attitude the crowd was expecting.
‘Darling Buds of May’ soon followed, announced by its opening lyrics, “I burned the kitchen down, you told me oooo”, and then that infectious chorus and unbelievably catchy guitar riff kicked in.
Sprinkled with Gallagher-esque “nooooows”, Newell’s singing was a Britpop tribute reminiscent whether you love them or hate them, you cant deny are quality tracks.
A slower number in the form of ‘David’ calmed the jumping section of the crowd down as Newell dramatically took off his jacket to unveil the band’s uniform button down collars.
‘Time Machine’ ended the set well, which rings more of Kasabian than anything, with its ringing bass and rangy chorus, still in that cringingly named Gritpop mould.
This short, sharp appearance left the fans wanting more.
Proving a great introduction to Manchester, this tight and persuasive performance brought the doubters round to the Brother way of thinking despite the lack of headline grabbing quotes.
Also published on www.virgin.com
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