Page 63 - Black Velvet Issue 88

BV88 pg63_BV88 pg63 03/04/2016 21:23 Page 1

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THEORY OF A DEADMAN /
ROYAL REPUBLIC / FOR-
EVER NEVER – BIRMING-
HAM O2 ACADEMY 2,
04.03.16
It’s Theory Of A Deadman’s last
tour on their ‘Savages’ album cycle –
before they go and work on the next
album. Kicking things off are UK band
Forever Never who are progressing all
the time. Frontman Renny Carroll in-
troduces the band as being from Essex
and apologises for the TV show that
comes from the area.New single ‘Living
A Lie’ is about saying goodbye to neg-
ativity, while ‘Pray’ features some gruff
‘pray’s. Renny has a T-shirt on which
says ‘FUN’ in large letters. He thanks
the folks that put their arms in the air
and tells everyone else who didn’t that
they’re denying themselves “some of
this” – pointing to the word ‘FUN’. The
band’s set has become more melodic
and their cover of John Farnham’s ‘The
Voice’ fits in more than it did a year
ago. These guys are definitely on the
up. And yep, they ARE pretty fun.
Royal Republic are even more fun.
The funky band from Sweden has a
quirky, cool stage presence. The
garage rock four-piece dress up, with
frontman Adam Grahn wearing a suit
jacket and tie. He tells us about how
they had to wear roller skates for the
video of single ‘Baby’ before they per-
form the funky rock ‘n’ roll number and
mention how bassist Jonas Almen
ended up needing knee surgery. Songs
such as ‘Walk!’ hook you from the mo-
ment they begin and by the end of the
set you’ll be walking, if not running, to
their merch table to pick up some of
their gems.
Beginning with fan favourite,
‘Lowlife’, Theory Of A Deadman’s
headline set is off to a great start. It
continues with singles ‘So Happy’ and
‘Bitch Came Back’, the latter the ulti-
mate in tongue-in-cheek fun. The mid-
part of the set sees the pace decrease
though. Single ‘Drown’ is lulling and
melancholy, while there’s an instru-
mental interlude before frontman Tyler
Connolly gives a speech about music,
which precedes ‘Santa Monica’. His
speech is a good one, which resonates
with everyone – about how your life
can change thanks to just one song,
and how it happened to him. They then
play ‘Santa Monica’ which is one of
their favourite songs, before another
chilled out single, ‘Angel’. The pace
picks back up after a drum solo by
Joey Dandeneau, with ‘Panic Room’
being hard-edged and with a pumping
chorus. The set ends with ‘Hate My
Life’ which the audience sing along to,
before the band return for their classic
‘Bad Girlfriend’. If we could change
anything about the set we’d probably
have injected a couple more faster
paced songs into the middle of the set.
That said, it’s still a solid show from the
Canadians.
YYYY
SBV
Tyler Connolly (Theory Of A Deadman)
Photo By Shari Black Velvet

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