Last Sunday, the Xcerts came to Birmingham for a headlining show at the Sunflower Lounge. The show, which had originally been set for earlier in the month, was rescheduled due to the opportunity to support Twin Atlantic on their recent European tour. Despite it being a Sunday night, the venue was so packed that people were standing on the stairs to watch.
The first band on were Birmingham natives, Hyena [7/10]. Despite missing their lead guitarist due to illness, they played a really good set. The sound was slightly too loud for their set, but that was more a fault of the venue than the band. They had good energy and, for a newer band, interacted well with the audience.
The next band on was Kagoule [5/10]. Their performance was fairly unremarkable; the band looked quite bored and their music was a bit lack luster. However, some of the audience seemed to enjoy their set and the final track they played was much more dynamic than the rest of their set.
Finally The Xcerts [10/10] came on stage and kicked things off with ‘Live Like This.’ The band mixed in tracks off their recently released album There Is Only You with songs from their earlier two albums. The new songs were very well received and it seemed much of the audience already knew the words to sing along. Front-man Murray Macleod was charming and engaged well with the audience. Despite having technical difficulties with his monitors and being unable to hear himself, his voice was impressively emotive and beautiful. One of the highlights of the show was when they played ‘Crisis In The Slow Lane’ and the whole audience sang along. They closed their set with a bang on ‘Slackerpop.’
Overall, the show was fantastic. Though the lineup was a bit of an unusual mix, the crowd did not seem to mind. Though it was a bit too packed, the smallness of the venue gave the show a very intimate feel, which suited the Xcerts music well. Hopefully the Xcerts will come back to Birmingham again soon and play a slightly bigger venue next in the future.
