The View

Supported By The Rosadocs

Support tonight comes from The Rosadocs, a five piece from Sheffield who have shades of early Arctic Monkeys about them and certainly don't lack for confidence. This specifically includes lead vocalist Keelan Graney singing their fifth track from amongst the crowd and continually bragging about selling out Sheffield City Hall tomorrow night. Really?

On closer inspection (e.g. Google) this amounts to the 850 capacity Ballroom not the entire City Hall. Not that that isn't impressive in itself as that's twice the capacity of tonight's gig at the Rescue Rooms. Are they worth their own hype? Maybe. They're very good.

If they are a band on the up, The View are a band whose trajectory has been all over the place. They appeared in some style with 2007’s ‘Hats Off to the Buskers’ but their career has been somewhat mixed since and not without some controversy. They seem to have broken up and reformed many times or at least that is the perception.

In fact the opening night of their current comeback tour back in May ended in a fight on stage in Manchester between lead singer Kyle Falconer and the bass player Kieren Webster. Which didn’t initially bode well for them making it as far as this gig in Nottingham. Surprisingly though, here they are. They even dropped a new album ‘Exorcism of Youth‘ in August.

An oldie ‘Glass Smash‘ starts things off in a lively manner with the more restrained ‘Grace‘ following and then they are into ‘Wasted Little DJ’s‘, their debut single. At this point it is clear that the band seem not only to be getting along with each other but positively enjoying themselves.

 

Falconer’s voice is still in great shape but then the group, who do seem to have been around forever, are still in their mid-thirties.

There are quite a few tracks from the new album too which seem to go down well. ‘Neon Lights’ has a shout along chorus which helps and just in case that isn’t going to be enough for ‘Allergic To Mornings’, Falconer makes sure we know the words to the chorus before we start. 

Following another new track ‘The Wonder of It All’, his sparring partner Webster takes the mic for the almost impossible to sing along to ‘Skag Trendy’.

You do feel throughout that the gig is always teetering on the edge of chaos without ever quite getting there but while that’s their modus operandi if anything tonight’s performance could almost be described as slick particularly when Falconer sits down on the drum kit for an acoustic version of ‘Face For The Radio‘. 

However after just fifteen quickfire songs in a brief hour, the band seem to think fuck it and cut three songs off the printed set list. After rattling through the energetic pair of ‘Superstar Tradesman’ and ‘Shock Horror’ they leave the stage and don’t return for an encore but, hey, that’s The View.