My Baby at The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham - review

We had elements of both here. In the best possible way. From the garage blues of As Mamas through the fearsome growl of John Fairhurst to the zany funk beats of My Baby.

An evening filled with screeching guitars, this was a mix of genres that meshed together sweetly to provide the perfect soundtrack to what had been a beautiful day.

As Mamas, An Evesham guitar and drums duo, channelled the greasy, slick sound of Henry's Funeral Shoe as they sloshed their way through a short set of rock 'n' roll.

They were very raw, with aspects here and there that may want touching up such as their fluidity in tempo changes. But at the core of their sound is a reverberating feedback that neither dilutes nor overpowers their sound. Build on this, and these guys may be able to ride the gravy train that has stormed through stations since the White Stripes first reared their heads.

The frenzied guitar was ramped up a notch when Wigan lad John Fairhurst took to the stage. His laid back Lancashire twang was put to full use as he regaled us with his tales, but it is when he went into song mode is when the real magic happened.

That. Voice. It was like a quarry worker had blasted a rock face, taken the debris, smoothed it in the toughest of blenders and then swallowed the gritty paste before preaching.

The slide guitar was even better. One long instrumental mixed blues with Latino rhythms that had the hundred or so of us crammed in jiving with him. He had us from start to finish, and his full band tour in the autumn may see a few of the same faces here tonight after that.

And then it was My Baby. The Dutch brother and sister with a Kiwi pal who smiled from start to finish and fed off the party atmosphere to give us part concert, part cultist ceremony, part rave.

They describe themselves as a 'tribal blues trance band', and this is pretty apt. Long instrumentals powered by Cato van Dyck's deceptively powerful vocals had even the latecomers dancing like it was the end of the world and they wanted to go out with a bang.

They played for roughly 75 minutes and paused maybe four times? They blended one track into the next, hitting us with the uplifting dance vibes of Ancient Tribe at one point and the zap and pang of Luminate the next.

The guitar of Daniel 'Da Freez' Johnston carries a lovely slice of blues, too, making it a trio of sloppy ear bangers to sink your teeth into this evening.

Thanks guys, you all just opened summer with one hell of a wallop.

By Leigh Sanders