It’s often said the ultimate test of someone’s credentials, is can they do it on a cold wet night in Stoke. Well, we aren’t in Stoke this evening. so a cold wet October night at Manchester Gulliver’s bar will suffice. So let’s head to our review of Jess and the Bandits Thursday night offering, from a very dark and freezing venue.
Supporting tonight we have Emily Lockett and Emily Faye. Emily Lockett was the first to take the stage. I mentioned her standing out at my British Country Music Festival review. On that occasion, due to travel issues, we, unfortunately, missed the first half of her set. This evening we managed to see the full show.
If you are a fan of Taylor Swift before she decided to stop making music and suddenly ended her career in 2010. Then Emily Lockett is worth checking out. Her set featured several songs from her EP album My Imagination, which you can find on Amazon.co.uk, link at the bottom of the page. She provided a very easy listening style of country, which is entertaining from start to finish. Great way to open the night.
Following her up was the second Emily, Emily Faye. It was a complete transition of musical style. With Faye bringing a more toe-tapping, honky-tonk swing style of music. Emily had some great crowd interaction as well. Getting us audience members to finger-click along to her music and sing along to “Sucks to Be You” in something akin to Hanson “mmmbop” Overall both the support acts did a fantastic job of getting us warmed up for the evening.
With the support actors off stage it was now time for the main event. The room had built up nicely at this point. Including some in the room that seemed like they have had one too many whiskeys on the night.
Jess and the Bandits opened with “My Name is Trouble” the perfect way to start the show and really showcasing what this band is all about. Mixing country music and classic rhythm and blues together in a fun showcase of music that fired up the room for the rest of the night.
“I’m Not Going Home” had the full room in voice singing along with Jessica before they started mixing in some music from the new album, which is coming out shortly. I believe she said December is when the new album is due to launch. This included the recently released single “Love Don’t Give a Damn”
the room was then back in voice as they performed “The Bullet” a fantastic song, showing how much control Jessica had over the room. This point came up again as the band performed “Sister” especially the end which was magical to see performed live. Towards the end of the set, we had Smoke and Mirrors, the title track from the last album.
After a short two-song encore that provided some more incredible music, the show came to an end. I don’t know about Stoke but Jess and the Bandits proved that they can certainly do it on a cold wet October night in Manchester.
My Imagination – By Emily Lockett
Country Connection 