It’s a fairly short trip to the town that can’t make up it’s mind as to whether it’s Lancastian or Yorkshire, Todmorden. Crazily enough for someone who has spent the last couple of decades gigging up to 5 nights a week it’s a 1st for me to visit the Golden Lion, a venue that has near legendary status as a northern live music venue but what a great 1st, It’s 3 amazing choices tonight especially as a Sunday is probably the worst night of the week to play.
Dead Raze. A currently fashionable two piece, just guitar and drums start the night after a small technical issue on the guitar. Punk edged blues not dissimilar to His Lordship who I was lucky enough to catch just down the road at the Trades club recently, their high energy distorted guitar paired with fast and wild drumming is a decent treat for those who got down early enough to catch them and they finished with a rather magnificent cover of Kick Out The Jams.
Wax Tree Cast. Local boys n girl being as they’re from nearby Halifax and have already found their tunes getting airtime on 6Music.
There seems to be something in the Pennine water currently, as the small market town seems to be producing some great bands currently with the big one being The Orielles and fellow up and comers The Hazy Janes. You keep hearing that guitar based indie music is dead but clearly those saying this haven’t come across bands like Wax Tree Cast, expect to see them explode in the next few years
Freya Beer. I was lucky enough to catch her late last year so when the opportunity arose to see her again the diary was cleared, the tiny sultry goth songstress from Southampton previously impressed me that much.
Having waxed lyrical about this girl after the last gig it will come as no surprise that nothing has changed. It’s a difficult thing to quantify but you can just tell when an artist just oozes that certain something that captivates you and you can’t but help get drawn into them, Freya along with the likes of Debbie Harry, Shirley Manson and Chrissie Hynde has this in buckets and before you know it her 40-minute set has passed in a flash.
During that 40 mins we were treated to some of her early stuff, some more recent and a few new tracks like Galore, Fantasy, and as yet not available track Groupie, her music is catchy, her voice stunning, and the signs are good that’s she’s still on the right track to take over the world.
CHECK OUT FREYAS WEBSITE HERE
