The Blackout's Gavin Butler goes acoustic
Gavin Bulter is best known as one sixth of the South Wales outfit The Blackout and is one of two lead singers. However, he completely stepped out of his comfort zone for this recent performance as he supported fellow Welshmen Attack! Attack! as they set out on their last UK tour.
Stopping off at Islington's Garage, Gavin Butler was clearly nervous about this performance as he is usually supported by five others, including Sean Smith who is typically the centre of attention. This evening however, all eyes were on Gavin as a one man acoustic band and he did himself proud.
Standing alone on the stage with just an acoustic guitar in your hand must be a very nerve-racking feeling and it doesn't make it any easier if the crowd you are performing to are chatting so loud that it can be distracting, for crowd and performer. When a full live band is performing everything is loud so the odd conversation by the crowd can easily be drowned out. However in an acoustic performance, everything is taken down a notch so loud conversations by very rude individuals can be heard by everyone, including Gavin who picked up on this and stated how the crowd was louder than he was and he was the one with the microphone. Although one individual did apologise, alas they carried on chatting through the entire set.
Rude individual's aside, the set Gavin performed was incredible. To go from a six piece live band to a one man acoustic set was spectacular. He performed tracks such as Into the Sea, Hey Girl and Everyday from the joint EP Ghosts and Echoes he recorded with Attack! Attack! frontman Neil Starr as well as a little rendition of Honestyby Attack! Attack!, with Neil popping his head out from the back room and a beautiful acoustic version of The Blackout's Save Ourselves. This one was probably the most memorable song of the set.
Gavin Butler has gone to prove he doesn't need a live band to be a brilliant musician, one man and his guitar is just as effective, possibly even more so.