The Bad Flowers, O2 Institute 2, Birmingham - review

The crisp, clear notes, the bone-jangling bass and each shimmer of cymbal sound untouched. It’s beautiful, turning what is always a sweet-sounding little venue into a cathedral of rock.

The energy oozed from the stage. The former The Ticket unsigned stars have been on a joint-headline tour with Federal Charm this month and this being their hometown show – or close enough, being from Cannock – they were absolutely buzzing.

Their stage presence is phenomenal. Frontman and guitarist Tom Leighton is the ‘earth rod’ of the band. He grounds them with his cool demeanour and talented solos. Dale Tonks is certainly not a graduate of the school of shrinking violet bassists - he prowls his half of the stage like a caged animal let out for the first time in a month. And behind them, Karl Selickis was a whirlwind of flowing locks and spinning, juggled drumsticks.

Selickis’ thunderous percussion was arguably the night’s highlight – each booming note was forced forward through the room and allowed Tonks and Leighton to add their mastery on top with little effort.

Lion’s Blood came early in the set and its fast, catchy nature sounded great. The willingness of the band to impress on their patch was plain to see here.

Leighton was suffering from a ‘serious virus’ but wasn’t willing to let his keen fans down. “Ya know, the show’s gotta go on,” he added. And go on it did. We even got a new track here that had a funky swagger with a deliciously low guitar growl throughout the chorus. Leighton promised us it was from a new record ‘we’re recording next year’ and that went down well as you’d expect.

Thunderchild with all its ferocious riffs amalgamated into a delicious slice of rock cake was dedicated to a bunch of birthdays, while the heart-breaking crescendo of Let’s Misbehave was touted towards Leighton’s watching father Paul.

A guttural screech of ‘one more song you Cannock b******s’ was answered with the grumpy, angtsy Rich Man, before they hit us with the crowd-pleaser City Lights.

We thought that was that, but due to the crowd simply refusing to leave, the band came back to the loudest cheer of the night to treat us to Who Needs A Soul that also included a tantalising cover of Sabbath’s War Pigs.

Well played gentleman, we await that second record with hope.