More bands need to be following in CryBabyCry’s footsteps, not having a cd launch, that’s been done a million times, but rarely do you get the cd as part of your ticket price, and if you paid on the door for an extra pound you got a free hotdog courtesy of one of Leeds nicest little venues the Oporto bar. Previously I reviewed CBC’s performance at Pontefract’s Crooked Ways back in June and if you read that you’ll remember that they were pretty much the best band of the day, so to say I was looking forward to seeing them again is an understatement. It says something about the quality of a band when I can recognise not one but a number of songs over 6 months later, as far as I know they’ve been playing for around a year now, and for a band to have songs of this quality and to be this tight live already is almost unheard of. Co-frontperson (politically correct as I’ll ever get) Jonnythefirth is a man of many talents, for proof of this just checkout his solo work or his other band ‘Knuckle’ who have already been getting good feedback, in CBC whether playing guitar or bass his abilities are never short of amazing. All this would be good enough for a decent band, but when you add Rosie Doonan’s sultry blues infused vocals, you go from decent to outstanding, the chemistry on stage would give Heisenberg’s blue meth a run for its money.
Highlights as before one of my favourite tunes already ‘Tombstone’, a storming rendition of ‘The Tramp’ and a song I’ll call ‘Jukebox’ because I’m not sure of the actual title, but the review doesn’t stop there, because once i got home I got to listen the debut EP. Opening song ‘Go Go’ is a brilliant call and response between Jonny and Rosie with a chorus most bands would kill for, but it’s the second track which really sends chills down the spine, as mentioned above, ‘The Tramp’ is a journey through blues and soul where Rosie’s vocals swirl throughout the song making it almost mesmerising, and closer ‘Lovely Bones’ is a country-gospel infused trip through melody, while it’s not the best of the 3 tunes of offer it would have fit in perfectly on the ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ soundtrack. For a debut EP it has no right to be this impressive, and for one of Yorkshire’s best new bands I can only see the future being bigger and brighter, unfortunately I can’t give you a link to buy it as it was only for sale as part of the show (which just makes the whole thing so much more special), so I’ll just put their facebook page.
9/10 for both
https://www.facebook.com/CryBabyCryBand
