Sunset Sons

KOKO and The Mason’s Arms, London (6th and 7th April 2016)

 

We first came across Sunset Sons last summer when we spotted them doing an interview at Boardmasters festival – at the time we had no idea who they were (to be completely honest, Kate basically spotted a guy with a beard, which turned out to be Rory…) We did however see them play the main stage the following day and realised we already knew and loved She Wants. The rest is history and we’ve been big fans of the boys ever since.

The band is made up of lead vocalist Rory Williams, Robin Windram on guitar, bassist Pete Harper, and Jed Laidlaw (a fellow Geordie!) on drums. The band share a passion for surfing, evident from their style, and, when they’re not on the road, base themselves out of surfing resort Hossegor in France.

Having had to make do with the handful of tracks from their former EPs (Le Surfing, No Bad Days, The Fall Line and She Wants) since Boardies, the recent release of their first album, Very Rarely Say Die, was exciting as it meant we finally had some new material to take in! And, as we all know, with an album release comes a tour…

This week has been all about Sunset Sons for us – the new album was released a week ago, then we had Wednesday’s gig at KOKO, followed by an intimate gig at The Mason’s Arms on Thursday.

We had the added bonus of being invited to a meet and greet with the band before Wednesday’s gig and Thursday’s gig was the result of an invite via Twitter following a competition – so we guess this was quite a lucky week for us. (Pretty sure the boys would have been sick of the sight of us by the time they made their way onto Bournemouth!)

Meet the boys twice in a week? If we have to I guess…

The boys put on an amazing show at KOKO and reminded us why we love them so much. Coming across as humble and chuffed to be playing such a great venue, the boys delivered some surprises in terms of new versions while playing tracks from the new album and made sure not to forget the old favourites:

 

Perhaps the highlight for us was when Rory took to the stage to perform I Can’t Wait solo (view over on our Facebook page). This is one of our favourite tracks from the album (narrowly topped by recent single Somewhere Maybe) and perfectly showcases Rory’s voice.

Thursday night at The Mason’s Arms was a very different kettle of fish. Playing to a much smaller crowd (less than 80), the boys happily hung out with their friends before and after they performed. It was nice to see them in such a relaxed setting and we always enjoy seeing what difference new acoustics make.

True to their roots, the Very Rarely Say Die tour has seen the boys take in a number of more modest venues in many major cities but also hasn’t forgotten the smaller coastal towns where they began. They’ve finished up in the UK now but you can still catch them as they continue their tour across Europe (check out future dates here).

We wish them all the best with the tour and, of course, the album!

Visit our Flickr page to see photo highlights from both nights, along with our Facebook page and Instagram to watch extracts from the shows.
KOKO <Pictures> <Instagram> <Video>
The Mason’s Arms <Pictures>
You can also check out our Past Events page to see our music archives.

 

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