Solar Eyes, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham review - local lads lay down some new tunes for a home crowd

Their new album may have been born out of a deep dive into Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic reimagining of the post-Manson killings’ atmosphere of late 1960’s Los Angeles, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. However, Solar Eye’s intro music as they took the stage at the Hare and Hounds this weekend wasn’t Charlie’s “Look at your Game, Girl” or “Cease to Exist” but something far more triumphant – the theme from Rocky.

Still, these local boys are making good right at this moment, and clearly in a celebratory mood, with the recent release of their sophomore album Live Freaky! Die Freaky! and a handful of TV appearances already under their belts. So, maybe it was a totally appropriate introduction to Glenn Smyth and Sebastion Maynard Francis’ weekend homecoming show in South Birmingham.

Smyth and Francis immediately took their places on the Hare and Hounds’ low performance space and got down to business without any fuss, launching straight into the Hibs’ remix version of “She Kissed the Gun” from their self-titled, debut album. Smyth and new bassist, Liam (he seemingly doesn’t have a surname) were both dressed like another band of local heroes – “Geno”-era Dexys Midnight Runners – complete with woolly hats rolled high on their heads, while Maynard Francis wore his dreadlocks tied up high on top of his head and out of the way of his flailing drumming arms.

As the dry ice began to swirl around the stage, Solar Eyes lept into the Kasabian-like groove of “Alcatraz” and the psychedelic “(At Least) Paranoia Loves You” as the room began to fill up with a mixed crowd, which ranged from young women in their 20s, dressed in Friday night glad rags, to silver haired and bearded men who looked like they were very much within touching distance of retirement, if they weren’t well and truly there already.

Tonight’s setlist actually had more tunes from their debut album than their latest release, but Solar Eyes were soon motoring through some of the livelier tunes from Live Freaky! Die Freaky! – beginning with a blistering “Set the Night on Fire” before slipping into the floaty “A Couple of Kisses” and the surf guitar twang and baggy beats of “Murdering Hippies”. “Dreaming of the Moon” brought more flavours, with a hefty dash of Cowboy Noir atmosphere, and “Top of the World” laid down some sunny indie pop as the fog from the stage got ever thicker and soon took on Sisters of Mercy-like proportions in the unventilated room.

The band brought their show to an end with the lively “Take Me to the Man”, which slid into a vamp on the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” riff, before they slinked off the stage to hang out with and share a few drinks with a very friendly crowd, who may not have been ones for dancing but, given the amount of band t-shirts that were flying off the merchandise stall, had clearly had a very good Friday night.

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