Fly With Vampires – Barfly, Liverpool, 10/04/09
Phil Styles leads Fly With Vampires onto the stage with an almost nervous poise, a would-be confidence and definite humility.
Fly With Vampires second hometown gig and they are neither overawed nor overshooting their steed.
Styles soon reveals to a largely apprehensive audience that his talent is not in whipping up the crowd like a rock ‘n’ roll frontman but uniting people in the affirmation that his voice is near divine, smooth when it needs to be and gravelly when pushed.
Fly With Vampires’ songwriting skills were unparalleled on the night's bill of super Liverpool indie acts, including the new and exciting Metropolitans, the much touted Bicycle Thieves and the mighty Sound Of Guns.
The audience are soon collectively agreeing through nodded heads of approval and admiration that there is nothing at all wrong with this support band.
You can't please all the people all the time but in the 30 minutes Fly With Vampires hold they stage, the firmly attention is on them.
Stop the Sun is a young Proclaimers-type chant. This foot stomping opener is mainly punchy vocals.
Lo-fi guitar and keyboard setting the tone for a more feverish second track.
Lab Rat – a stand-out electrifying moment of the set, with a notably Arctic Monkeys type rock riff and equally Kings of Leon type racy vocal.
Lab Rat is the tune to take home, sing in the shower, wake up with in your head, (was that just me?) Not bad, not bad at all.
Tear dried T shirts – An instant classic and at times overwhelming. One to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck with it's belting chorus.
Broken Glass - may be seen as a set-filler it has everything Fly With Vampires optimise in one track, strong guitar and trademark vocals. Requires more listening.
Not wasted on the Young – A crowd pleaser. The lyric 'When we grow up and we become men, we'll look to our fathers and we'll become them,' stands out as a moment of clarity and insight.
Puppet Master – The closing track is a glimpse of truly great songwriting, and I use this not lightly.
The arrangement is spacious, grandiose and enthralling. The best thing any band ever did was simply playing to their strengths.
Phil Styles – vocals, guitar, keyboard
Kieran Shudall – guitar, vocals
Paul Darhil - drums
Graham McGivern – bass, vocals
www.myspace.com/flywithvampires
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