A Special Time

Last week I went to another really great concert in Cologne. Flight Brigade, a British indie rock band, played a lovely show in the Blue Shell.

Flight Brigade is more than a band, it’s a family and that is where the chemistry between them comes from. Especially their performance and music dhows the special bond they share. Musically their sound is a mix of grand orchestral sweeps and crunching anthemic guitars. According to the striking mix of male and female Flight Brigade were compared to bands such as Arcade Fire or Of Monsters and Men, other pop bands who refused to compromise their size for the sake of their sound.

The bands members are a real family. Oliver Baines (guitar, vocals) is married to Miriam Baines who is the sister of Dorry Macaulay (vocals, violin). Thomas Pink (guitar), Neil Blandford (drums), Tom Clay (bass) and Jonny Baker (keys) were friends since their childhood and lived nearby. In 2015 Flight Brigade performed at many different festivals in the UK and released their EP “Stealing Fire” (self-released). End of 2016 they finally finished their first full-length album “Our Friends Our Enemies” which was released via Rebel Cinema Records. Flight Brigade want to create music they love, about topics that are moving and emotional. Especially their mix between hard rough guitar sounds and the classical fragile violin is very atmospheric and creates a great ambience. Every song sounds different and creates a unique vibe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their music was perfect for the venue. It kind of felt as if the music was crawling from the stage and wrapping around every person in the room. The lighting was kept very simple which was absolutely perfect. I think this kind of music need the space to speak for itself. The people also seemed to relay enjoy it as they sung and clapped or danced along. Unfortunately, there haven’t been that many people but those who have been there seemed to have connected with the music.

So it was definitely a special time with great music and a lovely down to earth bad who absolutely appreciated people supporting them!

For their show Flight brigade have brought Rews, an alternative rock band from London, with them who opened the show. Unfortunately, as there was loads of traffic I haven’t seen their set which was a pity. They are a female rock-duo, consisting of Shauna Tohill (vocals, guitar) and Collette Williams (vocals, drums), who have founded the band in 2015. Musically, they sound very energetic mixing drums, electric guitars with some synthesizer sounds in the back which worked very well live.

The concert took place in the Blue Shell, which is a very small scene club in Cologne fitting around 200 people. They do not only have live concerts, but also poetry, actors, parties and much more. However, at the evening I went there for the Flight Brigade concert, the club was not full. It was actually a really great and intense atmosphere and ambience as I kind of had the feeling all the people connected with the music and the band, having an amazing time. The acoustic was also not too bad. Unfortunately, very often, concerts in such small clubs have a bad acoustic sounding extremely chaotic. But that wasn’t the case for Rews or Flight Brigade.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a great concert with amazing music, magical vibes, very talented bands and loads of fun! 😉