Sins of Flynn with support from The Racketeers and Mudblind
Thursday 30th August 2012 – Black Box, Belfast
Entering Belfast’s fantastically decorated Black Box almost feels as if we have entered the biblical Garden of Eden with snakes, trees, leaves and apples hanging around the dark room, cleverly using the bands name for inspiration. The punters are also tempted by a sinful yet beautiful display of homemade cupcakes. What a warm welcome to Sins of Flynn’s EP launch ‘Let’s Go Geronimo.’
Firstly, exploding onto the stage introducing themselves as -“The Racketeers, and we’re here to explode your ears”, we are suddenly treated to a huge samba noise, that wouldn’t be out of place at a carnival in Rio de Janeiro. This fills the venue along with cheers and a certain element of surprise from the boozy punters; every kind of drum you can imagine is present on stage and enough maracas that would even make Ian Brown shudder. After a few samba-esque instrumental songs the band continue to surprise the already amazed punters as some of the group switch to an amazing cover of Jonny Cash’s ‘Folsom prison blues’ sung with a voice reminiscent to that of Louie Armstrong. The punters clap and sing-a-long enjoying the new sound their ears have just been treated to and surely remain in the party spirit.
Next up is a three piece rock and blues band with a rockabilly twist – a lot smaller than the Racketeers but still managing to impress the punters with their unique sound; Mudblind. They clearly draw inspiration from blues legend Muddy Waters mixed up with rock gods such as Led Zeppelin, all shaken up to create a cocktail of sound that certainly isn’t present in today’s music scene. Opening with ‘By the side of the road’ – a song bursting with bluesy bass lines, thrashing drumbeats and groovy psychedelic guitar riffs – the crowd begin to clap along to the catchy song and it seems this band recruit some new fans here tonight. Rab explains to the punters: ‘no blues band is a true blues band until they have a song about a train’ as the band treat the punters to ‘Blues Island train’. Finishing their impressive set with ‘Magic Ride’ , it’s clear to see (and hear) why this band made the final of this year’s Kracken battle of the bands.
Celebrating the launch of their EP ‘Let’s Go Geronimo’ – Sins of Flynn take their awaited place on stage. They are a four piece band formed by brothers Colm and Daryl and are heavily influenced by the likes of Pink Floyd and Biffy Clyro. They open with a mellow guitar riff to a song called ‘To Believe’ that suddenly bursts into an electric melodic rock song with raspy vocals likened to that of Paulo Nutini crossed with Kings of Leon. Vocalist/Guitarist Daryl steals the stage and grabs the audience’s attention whilst almost subconsciously copying Axl Roses’ trade mark slither slide. The large crowd that have gathered begin to sway. ‘It’s Getting Close’ is a song that the boys really seem to enjoy playing , and it sounds like a proper 90’s rock song that breaks into an epic Red hot chilli peppers style bridge. Guitarist Johnny continues to impress tonight by leaving his guitar down only to pick up a mandolin and harmonica for ‘Silhouette’ – an upbeat funky song off their new EP that is really well received by the punters. Lastly the guys finish up with another new song off the EP called ‘Could be anyone’ which goes down a treat with the beer fuelled crowd as it is much heavier than the other songs played tonight. It could almost be likened to early Papa Roach material with a pop punk twist. Cheers and whistles fill the tiny venue as the band thanks everyone for coming.
