Wizards Can’t Be Lawyers (WCBL) have made a name for themselves as one of the must-see live acts from Nottingham and I was glad I managed to get to the venue in time to catch their show in Brum. This sextet, who included three guitarists shared a really enticing thirty-five minutes in front of what seemed like many friends and fans who made the trip down from The East Midlands. They have a couple of numbers that have been released on a variety of social media sites with `Mercury Man` and `Paying For A Friend` and shared both with the latter reminding me of Electric Six for some reason. I`m not sure of the titles of some of the other tracks but they may have been `Too Hot`, `Pacts and Potions`, `Creatures of the Night`, `High` a song about the Sumac Centre before closing with `Go To Vegas`. There`s definitely something about WCBL who have a kind of post punk vibe with a bit of Yard Act meets Talking Heads thrown in for good measure. They have a few shows coming up in their hometown and I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out should they return to the second city.
Birmingham`s psychedelic cosmic explorers Solar Eyes arrive for a show in their hometown after recent trips to London and Manchester. Electric Light Orchestra`s `Mr. Blue Sky` rings out as the quartet take to the stage and head straight into the almost hypnotic `Alcatraz` a number whose title is a kind of metaphor about a pretty toxic relationship. There`s no let up as `Roll the Dice` which encourages us to think for ourselves, `Bulldozer` about taking control of your life and the contemplative `Dreaming Of The Moon` with it`s unobtainable dreams and desires follows.
`Let`s Run Away` races along and reflects on the realisation of past mistakes while the mellow Spector like wall of sound of `Top Of The World` envelopes us in that warm glow of enjoying the simple pleasures of being with that certain someone who floats your boat. I read that `Deep Trip` is the band`s favourite track on their self-titled album and I must admit i`ve come to enjoy it the more I hear it, a really introspective absorbing listen.
`She Kissed the Gun` really resonates with me for some reason, maybe because it seems like an anthem for those of us who seek a form of redemption.
The slightly psychedelic `Nothings For Free` from the 2022 `Dreaming of the Moon` EP is dedicated to one of singer Glenn`s friends Louie whose birthday it is today as we head into the foot tapping `(At Least) Paranoia Loves You` before the show closes out with `Take Me To the Man` which fragments into The Stooges `I Wanna Be Your Dog`.
The band are encouraged to share an encore and do so with the wonderfully titled trippy ‘Naked Monkey On A Spaceship’ before saying their good-byes. I really like Solar Eyes and being a band from my hometown gives me a further sense of affinity and pride in and with them. Tonight was the third time i`ve seen them in eight months and it was every bit as exciting as the first. There was a slight change in line up tonight as Emily Doyle was missing so Glenn Smyth, Sebastian Maynard Francis and Liam McKeown were joined by somebody whose name I either didn`t hear or wasn`t shared but competently stood in on the bass duties.
The band have a couple of shows in Berlin next month so I imagine it`ll be the new year before they hit the stage again in the UK but in the meantime if you want to immerse yourself in their trippy psychedelic sound grab a hold of their self-titled album.
