Live: Lonely The Brave @ The Marble Factory, Bristol.

It’s an early start for tonight’s show in Bristol. Spirits are high. There’s a contagious buzz infecting the room with anticipation and with the recent praise that Lonely The Brave have received from their newest album raise, it’s no surprise why. Each member of the crowd shares that genuine enthusiasm and it’s just one of the few factors that makes tonight’s set a special one.

Supporting act, Tall Ships take to the stage. Their presence has a casual but driven manner that most fans only wish they could still see in their favourite band. This demeanour is just a contrast to the sound that the four-piece produce. Tracks like T=0 range in textures, from thick, layered with unconventional but dynamic riffs to comparably muted melodies and softer notes. The impact this has on crowd is reminiscent of seeing a band in a packed out 8,000 capacity venue. The sound is memorable, loud and powerful.

The venue fills out quickly for Lonely The Brave. Singer, David Jakes, more often than not appears timid on stage, avoiding the limelight and fan adoration (which is nonetheless, humbling), but opening with a performance of Black Mire welcomes fans with a new energy from him that seems to spur on the rest of the band. It’s not lost on the first few songs either.

The Blue, The Green encourages further singalongs, making the track feel like an epic anthem, filling a club venue. Halfway through, Lonely the Brave, throw a curveball of a well-executed cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, which transforms the leftover passive observers to attentive eagle-eyed and fox-ear’d.

With undivided attention now on the band, here seems like the perfect time to introduce Radar, a punchier, rockier sound. It seems like they can do it all – get a group religiously dancing, moshing, singing and chanting, desperate to hear more during an encore.

What seems so universally special, is the fact that you’re watching a band that are about to break the world but you’re the first to find out the secret. It’s rare to find six people that so early on display such excellent musicianship without even really realising it. They’re only two albums into their career but this is undoubtedly a small fraction of its longevity.

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Live Review & Photography by Natalie Lam.

Lonely The Brave, The Marble Factory, Bristol on 7^th October 2016.