I was looking forward to catching local quartet Fergy LH again as I’d seen them support Big Special last May at XOYO in the Digbeth area of Birmingham. We said of them at the time that they were an interesting proposition and one certainly to look out for with their brand of garage rock if it was played by The Doors.
I struggled to find much on social media sites but found the following statement that Fergy LH proudly hail from Birmingham with strong roots in the Emerald Isle. The band harness a chaotic live energy, tipping their hat at early Libertines rawness whilst smashing together indie and punk ideals, with each performance carefully wobbling along the sobriety line until its eventual cathartic climax.
That does kind of sum up this delightful almost psychedelic thirty minutes which for me veered from early Jefferson Airplane to Hawkwind with a touch of Doom thrown in. The songs shared seem to be about the downtrodden, mortality, anti-monarchist sentiment, and love. The final song was `Talk It Out` a single that should be out later this month as the band have signed to a label called Love Buzz. They hinted at a fair few gigs they have pencilled in so worth keeping an eye on gig sites as there does seem to be something about this four piece.
Cardinals are a rock and roll group from Cork City who comprise Euan Manning (vocals & guitar), Oskar Gudinovic (guitar), Aaron Hurley (bass), Finn Manning (accordion) and Darragh Manning (drums).
This quintet are picking up plenty of plaudits with Dublin post-punk band Fontaines D.C.`s Grian Chatten being a big supporter along with West Belfast`s hip hop trio Kneecap.
They head on stage and open with `Twist and Turn` from their six track self-titled EP released last year, an introspective song with lyrics that are about grief. `St Agnes` follows and it`s the first time that we get to witness Finn joining in with his accordion on this quite melodic almost throwaway track. A further couple of cuts from the extended play are shared with the edgy `Amphetamines` and blistering `19` with a single `Amsterdam` from 2022 squeezed in between.
In the remainder of this forty-five-minute set the band shared the remaining tracks from their EP with the whimsical `Roseland`, rhythmic `Unreal` and the fairly melancholic tale of unrequited love in the shimmering `If I Could Make You Care`. There were also numbers like the guitar led almost grungy `Get It` and the intensive `I Like You` which gave us a flavour of the varied tales of hope, loss, love and failure that the group have in their repertoire. An album surely must be on the horizon.
The Rebel County of Cork have produced a fair few intriguing bands over the years with Microdisney, Fatima Mansions, Frank and Walters The Sultans of Ping, Simple Kid and Stump and for me Cardinals are the next in line. There was some nervousness in this evening`s performance but this was only to be expected as this was only the band`s second show in Birmingham and was fairly packed out considering they`ve gone under the radar here in the UK. I`m sure this will soon change.
