We miss Union Sound Set’s performance, but I imagine it would be received well by at least some of the crowd who are fans of both Charlie and his brother’s band (Ed is the lead singer).
Next up is Young Kato. They’re very new wave and it’s decent enough. The band have put a lot of thought into the sound and the songs, but unfortunately the crowd seem to be mostly disinteresting. They get cheers at the end of each track and they attempt to engage the crowd, but it’s not a sound that lends itself to much movement or sing-a-longs. The band need to work on their crowd interaction during tracks to really pull their audience in, but otherwise they perform well enough.
There seems to be a long delay between the main support and Charlie, but this builds the crowd up some more. Charlie and his backing band take to the stage and immediately start playing all the hits. Everyone is singing along and dancing and the vibe is very good already.
They finish a track and launch into Mustang Sally for a few bars and everyone sings along. It’s out of the blue, but one of those enjoyable moments from the show.
Charlie takes to crowd at one point with security and performs an acoustic track right bang smack in the middle. It’s unusual but it proves Charlie has a lot of trust of his fans. He introduces each of the backing band at one point, including them in for this ride because their talent is definitely up there and the band show this with their vocal harmonies and unmatched musical skills throughout the night.
A delightful show and a real talent to show where Simpson has risen to in the last few years of his solo career. If you missed out this time, don’t forget to check him out in Februrary.
8/10
