Gorilla Riot, Thieves of Liberty, Dead Reynolds

The Met Lounge, Peterborough

Saturday, March 22

Dead Reynolds

With more energy and appeal than a litter of Labrador puppies, Dead Reynolds spring onto the stage and launch into their powerful and pacey set. They shift through the gears speed and sound-wise, showing what they can do in their short supporting set. Slower, sweeter ‘Pieces’ pulls on the heart strings and heavier ‘Hurricane’ gives the pit a good reason to get moving. Their cover of Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Me Entertain You’ does what its name suggests, but Dead Reynolds don’t need to sing anyone else’s stuff to get a reaction – their own songs are more than enough to give the crowd a good time tonight.

​​Thieves of Liberty

Thieves of Liberty won’t be on the smaller stages for long. Frontman James Boak looks longingly at the lighting rig a couple of times, and while The Met Lounge’s may not be built for swinging on, future ones will be. The lads’ set is loud and bold. Band/crowd engagement is immediate – James is a phenomenal frontman who’s got the pipes and personality to make you focus on him as he takes ownership of the stage. Thieves of Liberty aren’t interested in delayed gratification. They get stuck straight in with classic rock rager ‘Until The End’, middle with catchy as f*** ‘Casual Tragedy’ and finish the whole electrifying affair off on dirty great slab of sylish guts and groove, ‘Shangri-La’. If Thieves of Liberty could go all night, we’d be there for it.

Gorilla Riot

Easy, sleazy rock boys and girl Gorilla Riot bring blues with a bite. Early in their stomping set tracks like ‘Still Doing Time’, ‘Salvation’ and ‘Molotov Sister’ lay down their grunge/groove/stoner/psychedelic intentions. And once these are lapped up, the audience is so far into Gorilla Riot’s kaleidoscopic set they are gloriously lost in this band’s mellow world which turns with plenty of momentum. And no one wants to be saved from Gorilla Riot tonight. Deeper and deeper they entice us. ‘Blush’ is dirty, ‘Bad Son’ is defiant, ‘Over You’ is a delightfully devilish duet. Arjun Bhishma‘s gentle yet gritty vox pops perfectly alongside Luci Vee’s crisp sweet backing vocals. Tonight they play with a presence and a passion that pushes into the crowd’s soul.

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