Soley Mourning @ The Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton - Saturday 28th March 2015

Review by Woody

Tonight’s local openers Hightale are a new name to me, but they seem to have a loyal local following. The lead singer proudly wearing his Wolves FC shirt has a commanding stage presence and frequently bigs up his hometown and fires the crowd up to get on the pop, his mic stand is made up of empty beer cans so it’s it a little bit obvious these guys like a little shandy every now and again. The football banter may have gone down well with the Wolves crowd but for me and mates Walsall born and bred asses we didn’t really enjoy that and when he asked the crowd to scream for Wolves legend Steve Bull who was celebrating his 50 birthday it raised some laughter from us.

Everything about these guys is soaked in beer from their lairy lads on stage presence to their raw rock sound. But I just couldn’t get into them their songs seemed to lack definition, and I found it hard to distinguish one song from the next so whilst these guys obviously enjoy performing, they just don’t have a strong enough song arsenal to make an impression on me.

I’ve been aware of Dudley based Soley Mourning for some time but never seen them live and tonight I thought it was about time I remedied that so it’s a night out in Wolvo on the pop for me! Now anyone who knows me knows I’m extremely proud of the area I’m from and I’m Black Country born and bred till the end of time! So, as the backdrop name banner for the previous band is replaced by the flag of the greatest country on earth, The Black Country, I’m quickly thinking no matter what’s to come these guys are pretty damn awesome.

I always try to be open minded with bands, but when you go to see a local band, you tend to expect a certain standard of performance so for the next couple of hours I’m totally jaw droopingly blown away by one of the slickest, professional and entertaining bands I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. Why these guys are not playing bigger stages is an absolute mystery to me and while the band have garnered lots of rave reviews from magazines such as Classic Rock, they just keep missing that bit of luck which will boost them up into the mainstream.

These guys should really be touring the country regularly with the likes of UFO, Uriah Heep, Black Star Riders and every classic rock band known to man because they put to shame the vast majority of the bands who get on these tours. Someone needs to get on that and get these guys playing up and down the country because there is a multitude of Soley Mourning fans out there who just don’t know it yet just waiting for that moment they experience Soley Mourning for them to realise their undying love for them.

They have a truly energetic sound paired with a visually electric performance which energizes their loyal following out partying their asses off tonight. Definitely one the best live acts I’ve ever seen, and I suppose this is only accentuated by the fact that I wasn’t expecting it to be just as good as this. They pair their groove driven Classic Rock sound with massive dollops of smooth melodies which makes the band stand out that little bit more for me, they have the rawness you’d expect from a blues influenced rock band, but that smooth melodic edge makes them more commercial and far more appealing to my own personal tastes.

Most of the songs I heard tonight were new to me and its testament to how strong the song writing is within this band that the set as whole invigorated and excited me without me been familiar with them beforehand. The only time I felt a little let down was during a couple of low-key laid-back ballads which punctuated the energy levels and had me craving the next song. But this is a very minor grumble as on the whole the band was mightily impressive on every level.

These guys have a really loyal following out tonight and they made their voices heard and frequently showed their love which added to an already enjoyable atmosphere. Soley Mourning make the most of their headline show and even treat their fans to a three-track encore, amongst the set list we got ‘Easy Life’, ‘Accidental Enemies’, ‘Make It Shine’, ‘Going Down To Rio’ and ‘Dead Man's Town’. For me one of my highlights was the highly melodic ‘Where You Are’ and if I caught lead vocalist Mat Partridge right this is taken from their debut album – which I desperately need to get my hands on as this was one of the songs that really made a big impression on me and I really need to get that blasting out of my stereo!

Soley Mourning are a band poised at the edge of greatness, one little nudge, one little break and these guys will become household names! These guys are way too good to only ever be a Black Country band; we need to share them with the world!