Faux Feet / The Sport @ The Underground 7th May 2010

Review by Liam Kelly

Photo by Leo Mazzocchio

Tonight’s eagerly anticipated gig was to see local favourites The Sport, and the newly formed Faux Feet pack out the underground, and display great scenes of the talent possessed in this city.

Faux Feet took to the stage to their usual crowd and flew into things with the upbeat tempo of their first track, ‘Stand tall.’ Authoritative bass lines from Carl and the talent in Sian Matthews vocals alongside Ben Finney’s tight guitar riffs give the band the platform to pull off anthemic tracks such as ‘Beauty Queen’ and ‘Keep on track.’ It’s clear to see Sian has some serious talent and constantly demands her audience to get involved. Her melodic and powerful vocals make it easy to forget the youthfulness of this band and they have a serious amount of talent and potential. In tracks such as ‘Rise and fall’ and ‘Found’ the band play confidently backing Sian’s tuneful vocals with conviction and precision. An enjoyable set which grew stronger through each song and gave Sian a wonderful opportunity to showcase the strength and versatility of her voice.

As the Sport arrived on stage at 9:45pm, the Underground was rammed to full capacity. The question on everyone’s lips - are The Sport currently Stoke’s number one unsigned band? Their loyal fanbase seem to think so and tonight’s performance certainly justified not only their growing popularity, but the buzz and hype that surrounds them. Kicking off their energetic set with ‘Freakshow,’ not only were the crowd sent into delirium, but frontman Nic seemed intent on joining the party, launching himself off the stage into the crowd. Next up was an older track, ‘Answers,’ also proving to be popular with the crowd. Matt Jones rapid and furious drumming is somewhat underestimated, almost taken for granted, but rhythmically, he is the backbone that fuses The Sport together and sets the platform for the band to produce anthemic tracks such as ‘Holiday’ and ‘Questions.’ And how can you forget the heavy bassing of Nick Gallagher combined with the robust riffage of Alex Shenton and Mark Taylor on guitars. Nic Andrews is arguably the best frontman Stoke has to offer at the moment with his Sky scraping melodies and soaring vocals, it’s easy to see why.

‘Dead Stars’ sees the crowd screaming back the lyrics to Nic and shows not only does he have a melodic voice, but has the talents to produce lyrics as captivating and memorable as the chorus to ‘S.L.O.W Down.’ The final track of the night came in the shape of the bands calling card, and definite crowd favourite, ‘Tick Tock.’ A band that surely must be breaking down the doors of record labels soon, in my opinion the Sport offer Stoke’s best chance of a ‘big band’ breakthrough, producing unforgettable performances and continually going from strength to strength.

Listen

Faux Feet

The Sport