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Foreign bands with huge followings in their native land often find it difficult to break into the U.S. market. For every Arctic Monkeys or Radiohead, there are dozens of other bands who can sell out huge venues, even stadiums, in their home towns (i.e. Biffy Clyro and Enter Shikari), but will struggle to fill venues in the States.
But when you are a quintet of young, strapping lads with melodic, synth driven rockers, the task may be not be as daunting. Case in point? Blossoms, a five-piece band from Stockport, UK, when they played to a sold out Echo in between their gigs at Coachella.
Blossoms are Tom Ogden, Charlie Salt, Josh Dewhurst, Joe Donovan and Myles Kellock. Their self titled debut album was released to considerable acclaim, hitting #1 on the UK charts. Their single “Charlemagne” became BBC Radio 1’s “Track of the Day” and was also featured on Spotify’s “Spotlight on 2016” list.
Their performance on this evening was basically a replay of their debut album, and they performed with a confidence and swagger befitting of a veteran act. They may be new to the States, but they certainly weren’t new to the stage.
I listened to their debut album a handful of times in its entirety and I have to admit, I liked the order of the songs on this evening better than the tracklist of the album. It seemed to flow smoother and gave the performance a pace that continually crescendoed. Closing their set with the biggest hit was definitely a no-brainer, but the rest of the performance had a real sense of cohesion that I kind of felt lacking on the album itself.
Tom Ogden definitely carried a front-man vibe, singing and interacting with the crowd with a cool nonchalance The young, rabid fan-girls who had literally pushed me and my camera gear away further and further away from the stage as the evening progressed, seemed to be enchanted with his aura, giggling with their friends every time he looked and communicated in their direction.
They only have one album, but I have a pretty good sense that if their sophomore album has records as catchy as the cuts on their debut, they’ll be earning more fans and playing larger venue the next time they’re back in the good old U.S. of A.
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LIVE CLIPS
Blossoms 4/18/17 at The Echo. Thoughts and photos coming soon to @BlurredCulture. pic.twitter.com/utkMEC9Cg3
— Derrick K. Lee (@methodman13) May 11, 2017
