Loyle Carner, Band on the Wall. 1st May 2019

Time for something a little different tonight and I’m not talking about a gig that starts at 6pm (good job I was working in the city today!). Loyle Carner isn’t representative of my usual gig going repertoire, but I’ve been hooked ever since I heard his debut a couple of years back. Silky hip-hop that’s often so laid back, it could be confused with lazy. It’s not though, Loyle works hard delivering poetic real life stories of his experiences and that’s what I like. Sure the beats are chilled, the vocal delivery dreamy, but this is 4Real as someone once said/slashed and that’s what attracts me to music, to this music. I’ve a good 20 years on most of my fellow music fans and there’s a lot of them, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Band on the Wall so packed, but hey I’m far from the oldest in the room, proving that good music transcends. His new album hasn’t captured my attention in quite the same way as it’s predecessor, but live it works. Thankfully there’s lots of tracks off that debut and it’s here that the place comes to life. It’s sweet, cool, wise and above all fun. Loyle is quietly confident feeding off the crowd and blasting that energy right back. Now I doubt you’ll find me at many hip-hop shows (normal service will resume later this week), but this was very refreshing... and I was home in time to catch the footy too!