Liberty Lies / Mallen / David Young & The Midnight Chorus
Splinter Studios, Wednesbury 30/11/19
Live review by: DeeDee
After seeing the excellent performance by Liberty Lies at the Steelhouse Festival this year, it was a no brainer to come up to the Black Country tonight and witness the hometown gig of the year. Liberty Lies in Wednesbury, the album launch show for ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’, in its entirety!
Local and talented songwriter David Young is the first support act tonight, with his ‘Midnight Chorus’ band. David has had some success, he’s appeared with Roy Wood and Gaz Brookfield recently and has released an album called ‘Wasted Days’. Most of what we hear is from the album, a mixture of soft and cool rock numbers and then in addition some folk elements. One to keep an eye out for, David Young can certainly write some interesting tunes.
Main support comes from MALLEN who have been around for about 5 years. The set tonight is mainly from the latest album ‘Polarity’ and from the start we are subjected to an intense and heavy bombardment of riffs and very subtle vocals from Kelly Jane. There is definitely something fresh and constructive about this band. I like the dual guitarists, Dann Pritchard and Rhys Broomhall, who seem to gel so perfectly. Backed up by the awesome drummer Jarrad Lambie and bassist Joe Horton, the performance is quite astounding. Some songs really stood out for me, the title track ‘Polarity’, ‘My Blackened Heart’ with its rapid firing pace, ‘The Otherside’ and ‘Pull The Trigger’ which has some very catchy riffs. Check them out, they are a lot heavier than most female fronted bands and deserve a lot more credit.
LIBERTY LIES take to the stage, with cheers and applause from the multitude of family and friends, who have piled in here tonight. The atmosphere is electric, everyone is so happy for the guys, they have come a long way since they used to play in the local pubs. Anticipation hangs in the air until they fire up with ‘United Nothing’, the room erupts and we are underway. They admitted earlier to me, that playing the whole album, all 12 songs, was a bit daunting, as they haven’t played many of them live before tonight. But no worries, they are soon relaxed, banter and smiles cross the Splinter Studios venue. ‘Different Tongues’ and the ballad ‘Letters’ allow Shaun Richards to confirm what an amazing vocalist he is. ‘A Thousand People’ has a magical hook, by way of Josh Pritchett and ‘The Day The World Is Done’ takes us in a more jazz infused direction. We get back to heavier guitar and perfect drums from Adam Stevens on ‘Coming Home’ and the audience by this time, are in total admiration. The powerful ‘Are You Listening’ and softer ‘Align’ with Miles Bagshaw swapping bass for keyboards, brings the main set to an end.
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After a brief encore, they play some numbers from previous albums, mainly ‘Reflections’ from 2013 and ‘New Addiction’ an EP that came out in 2010. An album launch show that was perfect, a really marvellous night and credit to Liberty Lies, they pulled off one of the best gigs of their career so far. So much awaits them, with festivals and a tour already being planned for 2020, you have to go and see them.
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Liberty Lies ‘A Thousand People’ from the album Launch show.
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5/5
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‘It’s the hope that kills you’ is available from the bands website HERE
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