While the majority of the time support acts at gigs are merely background music, sometimes there can be pleasant surprises. Tonight at Rock City it is one such occasion as there is an interesting prospect supporting Jamie T.

Jamie T

Slaves are an up and coming noise band that you wouldn't usually associate with Jamie T. They are two cheeky fellas from London, who came on stage with the biggest band logo signs that you can actually fit into Rock City. When the duo kicked into action, you noticed two things: the noise, and the fact that there are only two of them making all that noise.

Although it was great to see these guys on stage, there was an initial sense of what have these guys got different to other bands like them? Royal Blood have already burst onto the scene to much acclaim, so Slaves need that something extra - and they certainly deliver. Live, Slaves are full of high energy and have a bit of comedy value about them both in the songs and in between songs. 'Girls Fight' was a great short witty number; so short, in fact, that the band's introduction of the song was actually longer than the song itself. Highlights of Slaves' set list have to be 'Debbie Where's Your Car? ' and 'Cheer Up London'. Certainly a band to keep an eye out for.

So, to the main event: Jamie T has returned and his third album sounds amazing so there was a high expectation around the venue. The show kicked off with 'Limits Lie' which has everyone bouncing from the start but there seemed to be something wrong with the sound in places. This didn't deter the band, however, and like true professionals they motored on, continuing with his single 'Don't You Find'.

Though the unexplained sound issues continued, 'Peter' sounded immense live and then we heard some of the old favourites with 'Pacemaker' and 'So Lonely Was The Ballad', not to mention the awesome 'Spiders Web'. It's was just great to see Jamie T back.

The encore was predictable yet appreciated. Jamie and the rest of the band came back out with 'Shelia', which turned out to be more of a crowd sing-a-long. Then the whole place erupted with 'Zombie' before the final chapter of the night, naturally, 'Sticks n Stones'. An absolutely amazing set list, it's just a shame about the odd sound issues throughout.

3/5

Mark Moore


Official Site - http://jamie-t.com/

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