Rising Stars
Thankfully The Hedrons have pulled in a far bigger crowd than on their last visit to the Night and Day, where there can have been no more than twenty people left by the time they took the stage. Despite the poor crowd they were outstanding that night and I have no doubts that they will deliver again tonight but there's the added interest this time around of seeing new bassist Gill for the first time.
They kick off with their now customary crescendo building intro, which breaks out into the speedy 'Stop, Look and Listen'. Immediately they are straight into their stride and although the audience is fairly inanimate the band is the exact opposite. Tippi is a consummate front woman and seldom stops moving throughout, throwing wave after wave of postures and poses that are compelling to observe. Much like their debut album their live set contains no fillers and indeed most of the album gets aired tonight with 'Couldn't Leave Her Alone', 'Be My Friend', Falling Star', 'Sympathy' and 'Heatseeker' all following in quick succession.
New member Gill fits in well and seems to be enjoying herself as she and drummer Soup play off each other. The star of the show tonight though is guitarist Rosie, who has never failed to impress in the past but tonight she is on fire with a succession of flawless riffs and solos. It becomes clear as the set moves on that it's Rosie who holds the key to The Hedrons success, sure the rest of the band all contribute but without her dynamic guitar playing they would be a much weakened force.
It's no surprise that Tippi goes walkabout in the crowd during set closer 'Once Upon A Time' or even that she climbs up on a table for a verse! This time however she goes one better by climbing onto the bar and walking down it's length before finishing the song dancing with the crowd in front of the stage. In terms of performance this certainly matches their last time here and even those that aren't fans of their recorded work would have to admit that in the live environment The Hedrons take some beating. The concern for them would be that this is their third headline tour and the audiences south of the border (in Manchester at least) are still relatively small, which suggests that perhaps more high profile support slots would have served them better. There's no denying though that they are a class act and we can but hope that the release of their album will see a marked rise in turnout.