It’s a dark, somewhat grimy night in Birmingham and it’s not made any the more pleasant by a trek out into the wilds behind Snow Hill Station to find the Asylum II, a venue that seems to be the only sign of life in what otherwise looks like a dilapidated industrial estate. However, looks can be deceptive, and the Asylum II is a fantastic, old-school venue with friendly staff and a great atmosphere. It is also the perfect place from which Bad Flowers can launch the next stage of their evil plan for world domination…
…And domination surely cannot be far away, when you consider just how packed and sweaty the Asylum II is. Emerging from the cramped corridor in which the bands keep their merch, we come up against a writhing, heaving wall of sticky bodies. The scent of fresh beer mingles with the sickly odour of spirits and the frazzled ozone of overloaded valve amps, and it’s almost like we’ve traveled back twenty years to a time when venues such as this were (rightly) revered rather than pushed into closure by overzealous developers. For various reasons we’re not able to make the start of the gig, but we still arrive in plenty of time to check out Those Damned Crows, whose sparkling hard rock is heavy on both melody and riffs, the band coming across rather like King King do Foo Fighters. Certainly the band play with their hearts on their sleeves, singer Shane Greenhall interacting well with the sardines that pass for a crowd in these parts, and their massive sound (another gold star for the Asylum) provides the icing on the sumptuous cake that is their performance. So full! And sweaty! An excellent set. 9
There’s a huge aura of expectation surrounding the Bad Flowers’ album launch and with good reason – it’s a f***ing belter (check out our detailed review here). With a large number of friends, family and long-time supporters in attendance, the atmosphere is celebratory, bordering on the joyful, and the asylum, with its blistering sound system and well-stocked bar is the perfect venue.
As befitting a band who deal in the stripped-down essence of rock ‘n’ roll, Bad Flowers arrive on stage with no fanfare – instead, they head straight into action, the audience going nuts from the get go. Tom Leighton has a stunning voice – soulful and yet full of energy, and he makes good use of it as he belts out the aptly titled ‘Hurricane’ before leading the band headlong into the surging, heavy blues rock of ‘who needs a soul’ which, frankly (and apologies for the necessary vulgarity) sounds fucking huge live. Bassist Dale throws shapes even in the midst of his intricate bass runs whilst the rapidly increasing temperature makes Tom’s leather jacket a somewhat combustible proposition. ‘Lion’s blood’ sounds like an instant classic, with a large portion of the crowd singing along, whilst ‘secrets’, with its Royal Blood vibe threatens to explode into a thousand points of needle-sharp light.
Briefly slowing things down, we get one of the evening’s myriad highlights in the form of ‘Let’s Misbehave’, a track that builds from an intro that implies a ballad is in the offing, only to suddenly develop a raw, bludgeoning power perfectly fitting a gig held in the home of heavy metal. We head back to the beginning with EP track ‘run run run’, a bluesy number that gives a moment’s respite, and then it’s ‘Starting Gun’ all the way with the Led zeppelin-esque ‘be your man’, the taut ‘rich man’ and the astonishing ‘Thunder child’, the latter extended into the epic jam it always promised to be on record. This, my friends, is rock ‘n’ roll should be and the Bad Flowers truly don’t put a foot wrong. Humble to the last, they even try to leave the stage after ‘city lights’ assuming (their first and only miscalculation) that the audience’s voracious appetite has been sated, but it takes a further two songs before they’re finally allowed to leave the stage without causing a riot.
So, the Bad Flowers album launch… phenomenally successful, absolutely jam packed and vibrant enough to induce ecstasy in even the most cynical of souls. It is a stern rejoinder to any one of a number of ill-informed and foolish articles that have sought to claim that rock is dead. Rock ‘n’ roll is here to stay and the Bad Flowers are just getting started – make sure you see them whilst they’re still in venues that allow physical contact, because this band is going places. 10
