runaway Go, The Late Twos and In An Instant
Wednesday 12th November – Voodoo, Belfast
It’s a good position to be in when you have 2 stellar local line ups at different venues and you are forced to choose which one to go to….. On Thursday past I was at Voodoo in Belfast to see the 3rd show presented by Civilisation. The previous nights had included acts such as Meb Jon Sol & Mojo Fury and tonight stayed on par with those local big names.
The night started with the promising, young band, In An Instant. To a smoky and scattered room they immediately started into their set, with a blaze of guitars and pounding drums. The pop infused sing along nature of their tracks and in particular the choruses drew the attention of the gathering crowd and enticed them closer to the stage. Stopping briefly to introduce themselves, they ploughed on through their 7 track set. Playing stand out tracks such as ‘Boundaries’ and ‘Something Right And Something Real’, these guys are showing they are the real deal and ones to watch!
The second band of the night need no introductions for they are The Late Twos. This hard working band often seem to be on the bill of gigs in and around Belfast and judging by the crowd that gathered as they took to the stage, they were very happy to see them. The band rattled through their 8 track set, and the longer they played, the livelier the crowd became. Playing through songs such as ‘Modette to Ladette’, ‘Don’t wanna stop this dance’ and ‘Lana True’ from both their EPs, it was clear that this crowd pleasing, indie pop band has a big following.
When not singing front man Matty Legge exercised his distinctive on stage antics, with his back to the audience, arms flailing by his sides and with a wiggle of the hips before launching himself back into song and back to the crowd. Finishing up with their lively track, ‘Never Mind’, the band were applauded off stage leaving the crowd wanting more. Luckily runaway GO we’re up next.
Belfast based Indie pop 4 piece, runaway GO were using tonight’s gig as a warm up to an ambitious UK tour that consists of 28 gigs in 10 days. Taking to the stage and marking their entry the dual vocalists of Fiona O’Kane and Dave Jackson boldly struck the drum set between them – and we were off! The indie pop foursome really have the knack of writing and performing catchy yet serious songs and the crowd watched on intently as they went through a back catalogue of their tracks as well as new ones.
It is obvious that one of the strengths of this band are the dual vocals but it was perhaps the performance and voice of Fiona O’Kane performing the Sam Smith song, ‘Stay With Me’ that was the moment of the night. With this spine chilling stripped back cover version, O’Kane managed to mesmerise the noisy crowd into silence.
Picking it up a gear, the band continued to dish out the musical gems for another half hour before leaving the stage to a rousing applause and shouts for an encore. Runaway GO may be away on their travels temporarily but let’s hope it’s not long before they are back on our shores.
