It’s been a while, hasn’t it? On the back of our final gig of 2022, it only felt right to have a recap of it. In an ideal world, every gig we do would be reviewed but you know how it goes, real life gets in the way. Once the one gig is finished, you’re thinking of the next one, wondering what to do to build and improve from the ones before it.

So, here we are, finding ourselves in a rather unique position where we can look back on what was a very, very, special headline gig for The Silver Lines. 

If you’re looking for a traditional review, you’re probably out of luck as we don’t tend to do things in a totally conventional manner at Awayday Radio, as you have probably come to learn if you’ve worked with us previously. This will be a tale of things that stick out from the gig and a bit more. 

Let’s begin with the setting. Forum, Birmingham. A venue we were new to too, so completely green, I need not say too much more about this, instead, you can look at this tweet from gig openers, Uno Mas, who sum this up wonderfully well. 

 

I can’t even begin to explain the half of it, it was one of them surreal nights where you really had to be there to fathom some of the things that were going on. Another standard day at the office, eh?

So, you’ve heard about The Silver Lines, you’ve heard about Uno Mas, what of the other two on the gig? Well, unfortunately, The Lilacs had a blowout on the motorway so couldn’t make it in the end, so it ended up that The Mercians ended up being main support. And, you know the saying that everything happens for a reason? Yeah, that. 

Swarms of people were milling about in merch from The Mercians as soon as the door opened and I even heard a couple of people singing the chorus to Dreamseller which if you’re not familiar with, you really need to have a look in the mirror.

Eventually, we managed to get the tunes working through the speakers to drown out the bass from next door and from that moment onwards, something was telling me it was going to be one to remember. 

Uno Mas came on the stage and immediately got down to it and while it’s fair to say the majority of the crowd that were there weren’t overly familiar with their tunes when they came on the stage, it’s equally fair to say they would’ve gone away having earned tens of new fans. 

I’ve had the lyrics this jungle is mine going around in my head since Saturday night so they most definitely left an impression with their music, but they also did so with their stage presence. As was the case with each band, it looked like each and every person was thoroughly enjoying themselves, whether that be the drummer, the bassist, and so on and so forth. 

“A Superb Opening Band”

If you are ever fortunate enough to come across Uno Mas, be sure to call them Bruno Mars as that won’t get on their nerves at all. A superb opening band, fitting for any gig. Watch this space as I’m sure we will be working with them again soon. 

What next? Ah yes, The Mercians. After playing on one of the Awayday gigs earlier in the year for us, we were only too keen to have them back for more. I’ve said this on Twitter, I’ve said this to the lads and now I’m going to say it here. They are in the top three bands I’ve seen this year and I’ve done comfortably over 50 gigs, so adding in festivals, that’s the top three out of 200+ bands/artists. 

“The Mercians had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hand”

After they played for us at Dead Wax, I wasn’t sure if my memory was embellishing how good they were. So when the five-piece from Leicester got on stage I was hoping that my memory wasn’t deceiving me. Those fears were put to bed about five seconds after they opened with Dreamseller – it immediately got the whole crowd buzzing and from that moment onwards The Mercians had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hand. 

Next up was their latest single Just Like You and even though it was only released on November 4th, everybody who was getting involved knew every single word. They chucked the red glasses off the single artwork into the crowd which was a nice touch and as I’m writing this I’ve got it in the background and it has me grinning like a maniac because of how good the atmosphere was when this tune was being played. AM I JUST LIKE YOU, AM I JUST LIKE YOU?

An airing of their new single, Little Shaw Lane suffice whetted the appetite for its release later this week and you can pre-save that by clicking, here. Alongside a Fleetwood Mac in honor of the late Christine McVie and a couple of other unreleased tunes, the crowd were suitably warmed up, and then some once they departed to rapturous applause from all in attendance. 

So, after two sublime supports, how on earth did The Silver Lines follow it up? I’ll tell you how. They took the roof off the venue. Chants of Silver Lines, Silver Lines, Silver Lines were brewing as they took to the stage. They chose to come onto the stage to their own tune (Packet Racket) which was a smart move as they just rolled straight into it from that moment onwards and didn’t look back from there. 

Latest single Hotel Room was a crowd-pleaser, then again so was every song that was brought out by The Silver Lines. Whatever they were giving the crowd, the crowd gave right back and then a bit more, too. 

From memory, I think TSL finished on Alive and it had every single person in the venue belting out the chorus. Is this as good as it gets? This is as good as it gets!

“If you could bottle up the atmosphere/vibe whatever you want to call it from the night and sell it, you could retire tomorrow”

Throughout their set, you had people on the stage, people swinging their tops around their heads, people singing at the top of their voices, and everything else in between. If you could bottle up the atmosphere/vibe whatever you want to call it from the night and sell it, you could retire tomorrow. It was one of those I was there nights that will live long in the memories. 

Much like Uno Mas and The Mercians, they left the stage to thunderous applause and that was the end of that. A brilliant gig to end a blistering 2022 for all at Awayday Towers. Watch this space for even more next year!