Mark Heelis joins an epic sing-along to Lonely the brave.
Amazing Pictures by Helen Messenger  

  • Lonely the Brave
  • O2 Academy Oxford
  • October 18, 2016

Leader open up the evening. They use their support slot to road test material before their upcoming national headline tour, which includes a date at Oxford's O2 Academy on November 5.

It's an accomplished performance of melodic rock from the Oxfordshire band; think Kodaline and you’re somewhere there.

Next up are Tall Ships. Their energetic delivery of T=0 and Plate Tectonics best demonstrate the Brighton four piece's layered, experimental rock songs. It’s been four years in the making and fortunately their second album Impressions (due out in 2017) delivers more of their joyful, driving sound.

Headliners Lonely the Brave’s second album Things Will Matter is a bolder, fuller sound than their 2014 debut The Day's War. Lead singer David Jake's powerful vocal delivery links simmering guitars and crashing drums on set openers Black Mire and Dust and Bones.

Strange like I and Radar are intense. They are delivered at an unrelenting pace, but peel back the layers and there is a subtlety to Lonely the Brave's sound. Jaws of Hell and Diamond Days slow the pace to reveal a more crafted, soaring sound.

Set highlights Trick of the light, Backroads and a cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb have the crowds hands in the air for sing-a-long choruses. During The Blue, the Green, Jake hands over vocal duties to the crowd who sing the epic chorus "I want to know what it’s like, so I can feel it inside". "That was special, Oxford" guitarist Ross Smithwick grins.

Mid-way through Call of the Horses, Jake stands motionless staring intently at the floor in the centre of the stage. Around him his band mates attack their instruments creating a crescendo of noise, the crowd transfixed as he leans back to deliver the powerful refrain to the encore song.

It's as if time stood still for a second, band and audience united as one. On this performance Lonely the Brave definitely will matter.