Breed Presents: Seven Summits with support from Amateur Historians and Cedric Has A Name
Thursday 7th September 2012 – Pavilion, Belfast
Tonight marks the first night of ‘Breed’, the new monthly music night at the Pavilion bar. Opening proceedings this evening is Chris Steenson, better known as ‘Cedric Has A Name.’ Chris takes his place on stage and treats the small crowd with an intimate acoustic set. He takes us on hypnotising journey through both old and new material. ‘What We Want’ is an upbeat song that includes a harmonica solo, and is a particular highlight of the set. He finishes up his mesmerising set with ‘Wish You Well,’ which is clearly a favourite amongst the punters here tonight. A very well received set from Chris highlights that he has the potential for bigger and better things. His music is sparse, delicate, intricate, sombre and very magnetic.
Next up we have the extremely energetic indie/pop punk band, Amateur Historians. These three people create immense noise to produce a sound almost as if Blur has collided with Blink 182. As Chris Curry deals with the distinctive guitar playing and lyrics specially created to be screamed back by rebelling Emo teenagers, Bassist Luke belts out the bass lines as drummer Gerard beats those drums like his life depended upon it. The boys get an extraordinary response from the attendees as many are now subconsciously moshing along to songs like ‘These Cities Are Stealing My Soul’ and ‘Handclaps and Hopelessnesss’ that include choppy riffs and sudden elongated pauses before the songs bridges almost fooling the punters into thinking the songs are finished to suddenly burst into a pop punk frenzy. Again an exciting up and coming band that won over appreciation from Jen and Ally’s BBC introducing show on Radio 1 as ‘The party and the aftermath’ was played on air just a few days previous and certainly winning over a few new fans here tonight.
Our headline act for the evening is Belfast based indie rock band, ‘Seven Summits.’ They had the enviable opportunity of playing the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury in 2010, and have built up a decent following as a result. Guitarist/vocalist Rory Nellis is nursing a broken leg but thankfully that doesn’t deter the band from putting on an outstanding performance tonight. Their new album ‘Fossils’ is getting all the attention tonight with the majority of songs stemming from it. ‘The Warrior,’ uses a mass of trance like synths and chiming guitars from Ciaran and Dominic that creates a unique chilled yet danceable sound. Rory banters with the crowd and asks if any of them would like to sign his cast. The band then launch into ‘Okay,’ a bit of a slow burner but eventually builds up into a crescendo of noise. The crowd love it though and salute Seven Summits by holding their drinks in the air. As the band draw their well received set to a close with ‘Pig,’ a very danceable number that makes more than a passing reference to the children’s nursery rhyme, ‘This Little Piggy.’
A great turn out and evening of live music in Pavillion, the organisers will have their work cut out trying to replicate this atmosphere every month, but I think they’ll do it.
