Bright Yellow, British India - The Evelyn

Bright Yellow are floppy. Floppy hair, floppy shirts and floppy rock. Their smooth, loose and laid back rock infused with psychedelic overtones is an odd and possibly bad choice for a support band and their set doesn’t quite seem to be hitting the spot with the crowd at the Evelyn tonight. However the band admirably and competently press on, ignoring heckles such as ‘Play a song we know√Æ at the very least gaining respect from those in the audience paying them any attention.
At the complete opposite end of the spectrum British India are so full of energy and dynamism it feels that they may literally ‘blow the roof off’. Declan Melia on vocals is so full of passion, enthusiasm and charm you can’t take your eyes off him as he bounds around the stage, his battered and tramp like shoes surely a testament to the grim reality of life as a professional musician when the lights are off and the crowd’s gone home. Will Drummond on bass is the epitome of cool, polo neck collar up, dressed in black and catching the eyes of many a girl in the audience even if he wont acknowledge it. Nic Wilson provides a set full of blistering solos that lift the crowd in all the right places and Matt O’Gorman on drums never lets up for one second, pounding away profusely for the set’s entire duration.
The band are young, and have thus far seemingly crafted an entire set of epic anthems, which may bore the pants of some older and more jaded punters but for their fans, they can do no wrong. The songs could occasionally be deemed to be verging into that dreaded ‘emo’ territory, but very occasionally and very slightly, so lets let them off that hook. Cast aside aspersions of age, experience and song writing maturity, the songs may all be a little similar at this point, and all be based around the same sorts of themes, but these kids know how to rock a damn sight better than some twice their age and put on an astounding show. From the second the band takes to the stage until they leave after an encore that could have quite easily lasted all night there is an electric atmosphere that few bands have the ability to generate.

Published in InPress