Here we are back at Bannermans to catch those pop punk rockers Syteria but before that we have two other bands to watch in the form of Bicycle Trip & Jeanice Lee Band. The first band up are Edinburgh based Bicycle Trip, a three piece band I have not heard of before and who are classed as indie rock and soul. The boys start off with the bouncy fast paced “Monsters” from last year’s Monster Songs EP; a fun catchy song with hints of Talking Heads. The boys play a couple more from the same EP with the equally catchy “Should’ve Known” and “Lose Control”, the band play through a few more including “Generic 90’s” and “Summertime”. I will definitely be looking these boys up again, really catchy songs played and sung well, definitely indie hints with a touch of Talking Heads meets Fun Lovin’ Criminals kind of vibe going on.
Next have the Jeanice Lee Band, who open with “Overhaul” from last year’s Urban Legends with its guitar-laden intro followed by some great vocals from Jeanice. You get carried along on the soaring guitars from Marco and Jeanice with some terrific drumming from Tony, ably assisted in the rhythm section by Jamie on bass; a great opening track. With the majority of the set coming from last year’s album including the excellent symphonic prog rockers “Back in our Cage” and “From the Ashes” as well as the rockier “Liquid Gold”. The highlight of their set for me is always “Walk Away From Me” which always reminds me of “Faster” by Within Temptation. They never disappoint live vocally and the guitar work of Marco is always outstanding, Tony is a great drummer pounding away up the rear and let’s not forget Mr Bass, Jamie Hunter. I even have him on camera smiling! I look forward to catching them on a bigger stage later this year when they open for Wishbone Ash at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh.
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The main event now with Syteria, the band are touring promoting their new album Syteriaworld and it gets a strong outing in the setlist tonight with songs touching on a range of themes from overcoming fears, dealing with breakups and social media issues. The lyrics of the new songs are definitely a step forward from the previous two albums in of dealing with today’s modern society with tracks like the single “Monsters”, a drum and guitar-heavy rocker of a track on the subject of social media. We also get the bass-led riff-tastic single “It Hit Me”, a real bouncy track with hints of No Doubt in its groove. We have a quadruple outing from 2020’s Reflection album with “Plastic Fantastic” and “Gossips” along with the riff-fuelled rockers “Reflection” and “Make Some noise” which Bannermans certainly did tonight.
Let’s not forget 2017’s Rant O Bot, with “I’m All Woman”, the rocking “Revolution” & the bouncy “Get a Life”, the band end the night with the funtastic “Halloween”. The band were on fine form tonight with Julia’s voice always great, Jax is just fantastic on guitar, Pablo killing it on drums as always and I finally managed to catch Steph Dawson on bass and she never disappointed, bouncing about all night and the live versions of the new album tracks certainly bode well for them when it comes out on August 11th. You can catch the band next on 15th July at the Vale of York in Thirsk, get along and have a great night you will not be disappointed.
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Pics by Gary Cooper
