After being at several festivals, I welcomed heading to one of Birmingham’s smaller, intimate venues in The Sunflower Lounge to see Boston punks Energy on their first UK headline run.
Opening the night is Mantra. I got more into their set towards the end as they seemed to improve after each song. They have a bit of a grungey punk vibe that the crowd seemed to enjoy.
Going into the set, I was intrigued by how Miss Vincent were going to sound, I’m a fan of their music but when seeing them live at a different venue last year, I was pretty disappointed, whether it was the sound being off or what, I don’t know. But tonight they were incredible. At times I found it was a little difficult to hear some of the vocals but they were entertaining and know how to put on a good show as they played through tracks including new single Cold Hands, The Lovers and my favourite track of theirs Blame.
Energy take to the stage with the haunting The Witching Hour. While they are promoting their latest EP Under The Mask, the tracks of which heavily feature in the set list, there are also plenty of older tracks that had the crowd singing along including Hunter Red and Dead In Dreamland. Latest single A Prayer For Rain is a stand-out moment in the set. After seeing Energy perform to a sold-out 1,000 capacity crowd back in April and totally smash it, it was refreshing to see the exact same vigour from the band on stage in a smaller setting. Again at times I did find it hard to hear the vocals, however, for the majority of the set, the vocals were spot on, guitars were loud and while the room was too small for any pits, the crowd, like myself, definitely enjoyed the set and cannot wait for Energy to return!