Page 49 - Black Velvet Issue 96

BV96 concerts pg49_BV96 pg49 12/03/2018 03:19 Page 1

BlackVelvetMagazine.Com - 49
DON BROCO / MAN WITH A MISSION / YONAKA – BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY, 15.02.18
With a new album (‘Technology’) hitting the charts at number 5, life could not be better for Don Broco. With Man With A Mission win the title
many shows sold out, this UK tour has come at the perfect time and sees Don Broco really staking their claim for the most fun band of the night –
as one of the best UK bands around at the moment. all wearing furry wolf heads on stage.
Female-fronted Yonaka from Brighton are a new up-and-coming band, but it’s easy to see that they too, in These guys from Japan have a rock-
a year or two, will be lauded by everyone. Vocalist Theresa Jarvis almost sounds like Amy Winehouse during ier presence, fusing some sonically-
one song, while the band as a whole have a dark indie rock tone. Theresa stomps around the stage in leather- charged hard rock with melodies and
look trousers and platform boots demanding that all eyes are on her. Sharp attitude seeps out of songs such a smooth layer of dancey beats.
as ‘Fucking With The Boss’ and ‘Ignorance’. Don’t be ignorant – and check this band out – before they make ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ sees their wolf
you! eyes light up – although ours are lit
up for most of their set. A cover of
Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
helps win the crowd over. Our mis-
sion is now to see these men again.
It’s amazing how far Don Broco
have come in the last few years. We
remember first seeing them as a sup-
port act in the smaller Academy 2,
and now they’re headlining the sold
out main Academy. How did that hap-
pen? Well, we know why it happened
– because they have a catalogue of
great tunes that can appeal to many,
and put on solid shows. Oh, and their
videos are insane too. So they run
out onto the stage to the intro of
‘Pretty’. There’s an extra cheer for
frontman Rob Damiani. Right from
the off, the crowd are bouncing up
and down – and they don’t seem to
stop for the whole show. With new
album, ‘Technology’, the band are re-
ally creating sounds in songs that
others haven’t – and the crowd are
loving it. The one downer is the light-
ing – for the first song it’s pretty much
just red/pink with blasts of white – not
the best for photography. Rob gets
everyone in the audience to move to
the left and right before ‘organised
chaos’ commences. ‘Everybody’ is
another bounce-fest – this time just
with dark blue lighting. One thing that
makes the band stand out is drum-
mer Matt Donnelly being able to add
his own range of backing vocals to
the songs. His vocals really help
make the songs what they are. Rob
gets off the stage and stands on the
barrier 3/4s of the way through the
song, which really excites the crowd.
Songs such as ‘Fire’ and the dancey
‘You Wanna Know’, with their hooky
choruses, are bright lights. Guitarist
Si Delaney is like a firework, jumping
around, while even the smooth and
chilled bassist Tom Doyle does a few
jumps. The crowd shows their ap-
proval for new songs such as
‘Porkies’ and ‘¥’ while the main set
ends with ‘Money Power Fame’ –
something the band are slowly start-
ing to get, before a fun encore of
‘Come Out To LA’ and ‘T-Shirt song’,
the final number seeing a mass whip-
ping of T-shirts around the audi-
ence’s heads. As with their music the
band have managed to come up with
something that no other band has
done before – and it ends the show
in the best possible way.
Next stop arenas, then?
YYYYY
Shari Black Velvet
Rob Damiani (Don Broco) Photo By Shari
Black Velvet

CONCERTS