Somehow, we’ve been doing this whole Overtone thing for nearly four years now, yet this was our first time at Wolverhampton’s own Gifford Arms! So, weren’t we lucky that it was for a night of awesome rock music from three incredible young bands? There was no way we weren’t telling y’all how great of a night we had!
First up were a band I was unfamiliar with until they were announced for the show, Skint Lilly. However, they absolutely blew me away, and gained a big new fan in me! They said they haven’t been going all too long but you wouldn’t have guessed it by the way they played. They sounded incredible, and put on a damn good show given the small stage they were on. They played a fantastic set of their own awesome music, too. From the great instrumentation to the phenomenal vocals, it all fit together so well, and their songwriting is a lot of fun. The band could go very far indeed if they get the chance to, and seemed like genuinely good guys too!
Eddie & The Wolves were up next. You know the drill by now. I had a blast as always, and though we were a member down, I still think we sounded pretty decent! Heck, if anything it gave Edd more of a chance to show off, and the extended solo at the end of ‘Nine Lives’ was a lot of fun! After two gigs with Shaman’s Harvest, it was arguably nicer to get on a smaller stage again in front of slightly more intimate crowd. We had a blast, and I’d like to think we played and sounded good!
Not long after the headliners, AK & The Red Kites, took to the stage. The band have been causing quite the stir in the underground rock scene recently, so to finally be able to get to see them live was pretty awesome. Their particular brand of blues-drenched hard rock was just as awesome live as it is on track, and they do a fantastic job at matching the sound between the two perfectly. The band are all incredible musicians and really got to show that off in a headline set! And, for such a small stage, they put on a great show; their magnetic stage presence as a three piece-proving to be awesome! They of course played their 2024 EP, recent single ‘Proverbial Storm’ being a particular highlight for me. The band have already shown they’ve got what it takes to go far in the short space of time they’ve been active in the scene, and it’s sets like this that are proving that in spades!
Overall, this was a damn fun night! I know that I was playing it so may be a little bias, but both other bands absolutely smashed it and put on great sets in their own right. Skint Lilly have a big new fan in me, and AK proved why they are so buzzed about these days. I cannot recommend seeing any of the bands live enough, or checking them out on track, as you’ll surely enjoy them as much as we did!