The Guest List came to The Sunflower Lounge for their Birmingham show, bringing Florentenes as support. These two Manchester-based indie rock bands demonstrated their wide variety of skill to a completely sold-out venue of dedicated fans. Before the gig even started, the audience were singing along to the playlist, chanting the words to classic indie bangers.
Florentenes
Florentenes’ energy was instantly communicated to the crowd, and supported by the clear chemistry that the bandmates share. Between their movement on the stage and encouraging the audience to clap along to their songs, Florentenes were exciting to watch and seemingly effortlessly warmed the crowd up. Throughout their set, they combined various well thought-out guitar techniques and immaculate tones, passionate lead and backing vocals and intense drums to convey their musical style, which was a slightly heavy indie rock.
Florentenes are used to being on stage, which was made clear by their confidence and charisma. Their frontman made sure to acknowledge the audience, by asking ‘how they are doing’, and thanked the Guest List for having them. A combination of well-written, catchy indie songs, immaculate playing and confident, friendly interactions from and between the band made Florentenes’ set a complete success.
The Guest List
The Guest List were welcomed by a tsunami of cheering and applause. The band made their way to the stage before opening with their classic: ‘Steel Police’, a song instantly recognisable for its iconic intro. Throughout the set, the Guest List showcased their unique riffs, imaginative songwriting and immense skill on their respective instruments. The passionate lead vocals suited the range of the Guest List’s style, from more gentle arrangements such as ‘161’ or ‘London’, to heavier, more dramatic ones, such as the unreleased ‘Plasticine Heart’, and the authentic meaning in the songs was also portrayed through the frontman’s stance, holding onto the mic with one foot on the monitor – clearly singing to those in front of him. Each solo was carried out flawlessly and welcomed by the cheering audience, who were evidently embracing every note. Part way through the set, the guitarists, bassist and drummer stepped aside briefly, while the frontman played a short, calm, intimate acoustic section, which was very special and was welcomed by the crowd. Later, the audience singing along to ‘London’ and other songs created a gentle, ethereal sound and beautiful sense of community.
While the frontman did briefly speak to the audience, more so towards the end, it would be nice to see even more of that, especially in smaller venues where there is a more intimate atmosphere. As they have such a large online platform and general audience, more personal interactions from the band in live settings would be even more special and valuable to members of the audience and could help further consolidate their relationship with individual fans and further showcase their authenticity. While the Guest List’s genre is undoubtedly indie rock, they make their music unique by often giving their arrangements a moody, exotic and/or dramatic undertones, which makes them stand out even more. One thing is very clear, and that is that the Guest List know which emotion they want to convey, and how they are going to do it.
The band finished with ‘161’, a personal favourite of mine, which brought their excellent set to a close. This was one of the many songs that the audience sang along to, which created a beautiful atmosphere to end the set with.
Overall, this gig featured great songs, confident performances and immense skill. In my opinion, a local band performing could have been a nice way to show support for Birmingham’s grassroots scene and help to elevate one of the many talented artists from the area. It would have also been nice to see some female representation in performers, too. With that being said, this was a successful gig that engaged a full room of enthusiastic indie fans. I hope to see both bands perform again, soon!