Colchester-based promoters Ice Breaker promotions celebrated their first birthday in style on Friday with cake, party hats, and performances from some of the town's best young acts. Founders Jack Jordon and Gary Hill have put on some great live shows at numerous Colchester venues over the past year, and their hard work and dedication was rewarded on the night with sets from acoustic guitarist Alex Gordon, pop punk delinquents Forever After, scene new boys Lamplight Hideouts, and Ice Breaker favourites Never Ending Lights.Softly spoken singer-songwriter Alex Gordon kicked things off on the night with a set of popular covers reworked to suit his clever acoustic approach. With his pint-sized travel guitar, tender vocal tone, boyish good looks, and witty self-deprecation, Alex has everything he needs to make a female audience go weak at the knees. Opening with songs by Paolo Nutini, Jason Mraz, and Bruno Mars, it was soon clear that there's plenty of substance to match the solo artist's style. Stretching his considerable vocal range on Bruno Mar's Beautiful Girls, Alex reached even the highest notes without stalling the song's momentum, creating the kind of chilled out summer beach vibe that brought a smile to several faces despite the November chill outside the auditorium. Nizlopi's JCB song was specifically requested by the Ice Breaker guys, and it was easy to see why when Alex got the crowd involved during the midsection sing-along. But it was on the stripped back reinterpretation of Jamiroquai’s Virtual Insanity that his voice seemed most at home, rising and falling with the undulating melody and showing considerable poise and control throughout. An Ed Sheeran cover allowed Alex to showcase the versatility of his voice, as he handled the transitions between the spoken word rap sections and the clean melodies with ease, upping the ante for the bands that followed.
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| Alex Gordon |
Forever After, the first band to follow Alex on the night, might be better known to some in the Colchester area as Abusing Mary Jane. The four-piece, consisting of front man Dom Littler, lead guitarist Tom Lonton, bass player Harry Stokley, and drummer Craig McQueen, have made a decent impression on the live circuit over the past three years under their previous moniker, but are intent on a new musical direction to accompany the name change. Fans of AMJ will be relieved to hear that the band’s pop punk swagger hasn’t suffered; Dom’s casual petulance and offbeat vocal phrasing maintains the youthful exuberance of the band’s older songs, without stunting the ambition of the new material. Harry contributed an assortment of rhythms and solid backing vocals throughout the set, while the mutual energy between Dom and drummer Craig provided a focal point at the centre of the stage, proving particularly effective on Red and White (with its broken verse beat and powerful chorus) and Lights, a track that fuses a slap bass funk feel with a driving, hard rock pulse, all within a loud/quiet dynamic. Lead guitarist Tom adds clever touches with classic/acid rock licks like the one that plays out old AMJ track Five Past Midnight, while final track The Answer picked up the pace with its huge feel good Americana chorus and clever verse groove. Dom is given the chance to shine in the track’s final chorus, again touching upon his potential (in the same spirit as bands such as Blink 182) to speak for the experiences and alienation of an adolescent audience.
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| Forever After |
Next up was the night’s most underrated band, Lamplight Hideouts. The three-piece; Billy Muldoon (guitar/vocals), Sam Keyes (bass/vocals), and Louis Day (drums/vocals), take their name from a line in a Gaslight Anthem song, and were a bit of an unknown quantity before they took to the stage. There were few in the audience who could forget their performance after a furious eight song set that mixed original tracks with some of the band’s favourite covers. Lamplight Hideouts play foot stomping, no-nonsense rock, complete with low slung guitars and hard-hitting drums, and their covers of The Gaslight Anthem’s 1930 and Misfits’ Saturday Night were full of punk fury, uplifting sing-along choruses, and repetitive strain injury (mainly for bass player Sam, whose head banging was getting more and more vigorous as the set went on). The band sounded great live, going for a ‘fuller’ sound with solid chord structures instead of overcomplicating things beyond the means of their three parts. Drummer Louis adds an original touch to his quick (but powerful) beats with a quirky use of the bell of his ride cymbal, which chimed every now and then, signalling breaks such as those in the original track 1944. The crazy faces he pulls throughout the set are worth the admission price alone, though so was final track Emily, which rang out through the auditorium with Billy’s chugging guitar and soaring chorus vocals. They might not hit every note and their originals might not scream ‘cutting edge’ or ‘innovation’, but there’s no doubt that the Colchester scene could do with more bands like Lamplight Hideouts.
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| Lamplight Hideouts |
It turned out to be a difficult night for headliners Never Ending Lights, who have recently released their debut EP Kings With No Crowns. The band were without bass player Rob Brown for the evening, and his absence became more apparent when lead guitarist Ash White suffered some unfortunate technical difficulties. Vocalist Dan Brady was also suffering from illness, making the performance an intimidating prospect for the band, especially considering the strong showings that had preceded them. Despite the issues beyond their control, the four remaining members played through a full set, with Dan and Ash in particular doing their best to make up for these handicaps by putting everything into the vocals and lead guitar parts on opener Broken Apathy and older track When the Moon Divorced the Sky (probably the best song of the set). A rock version of Kesha track Tik Tok dragged the energy levels up a notch with a clever change of pace in the chorus, and the crunchy, distorted guitars and heavy, primitive drumming (courtesy of Jack Hudson and Adam Harrison respectively) on Growing Patiently really brought out the best in NEL’s sound. The same can be said of Fragile Fingers, which features a fantastic lead outro even if it does lack Ash’s backing vocals (which give Growing Patiently some real depth). NEL finished up with new track Kings with No Crowns, which perhaps sums up how they felt about headlining the event.
