The Troubadours, Heebie Jeebies, Liverpool Sound City

As the premiere of eagerly awaited film Awaydays and a killer performance from a certain Hollywood actress was stealing all the limelight, Sound City had plenty of other music acts across the city to check out…

Amongst the crop were The Troubadours at the fashionable Heebie Jeebies in Seel Street.

Before the four-piece took to playing in the upstairs part of the venue, support came from three acts from Australia, Manchester and London.
Brisbane-based The John Steel Singers and Manchester act Frazer King were impressive.

TJSS had tunes sounding very much like The Bees with use of trombone and trumpets in their set. Each member looked like an early Kings of Leon member with long hair and beards, but they had gathered good support considering where they had travelled from.

A travelling posse had also made the trip across the M62 to see Frazer King who showed some potential with their Pogues-type sound.

In vocalist Jack Mahoney, Frazer King – named after band member and songwriter Nathan McIlroy’s grandfather – produced a deep and gritty sound on a similar vein to Nick Cave.

An interruption from a white Winklepicker wearing member of the audience, who was frog marched out the building for having one too many Perroni’s, dampened spirits a little before the main act took to the stage.

Nonetheless, The Troubadours kicked off proceedings with “Surrender” and soon interest picked up again and the gathered crowd got down for a little bop and foot stomp.

Throughout their six-song set, the lads from Wigan and Liverpool showed a genuine seriousness in what they were doing and, particularly in the case of Tony Ferguson’s bass, professionalism and care in making sure the sound was right.

With "Gimme Love" and “Im Not Superstitious”, The Troubadours have penned tracks following easily in the footsteps of Liverpool favourites The La’s, The Coral and The Zutons. Radiohead producer John Leckie has taken notice so they’re certainly starting on solid ground.

They closed their set and the evening with a Bob Dylan number - a great cover of his 1976 protest song “Hurricane” – and just like that song’s original intention the band packed a punch.

The Troubadours release their debut album in the summer following more performances in their home city.

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