Envy & Other Sins @ Birmingham Barfly – 29th April 2008
With their tour coming to an end, it was bound to be a good night at the Barfly. Envy and Other Sins returned to their hometown of Birmingham to play at the relatively small venue, and it was a brilliant night!
Doors opened at around 7pm, but we were let in slightly earlier because of the rain. Shivering, the crowd waited for what seemed like forever for Envy to come on stage. It was an agonizing wait, but was well worth it when Envy finally began building their set. For a long time they have had rather bizarre props, ranging from shag carpets to arm chairs, not forgetting their side kick Phil the pheasant. And tonight was no different, they had a carpet, two lamps and of course their plastic pheasant pal. For any doubters as to whether it was a pheasant or a grouse, the guitarist cleared it up for us, after reassuring us that they had done their research.
After winning T4’s Mobile Act Unsigned, things have taken a positive turn for Envy. They are touring regularly and their fan base is growing rapidly. Each time they play in Birmingham, they are welcomed with positive, smiley faces.
They of course, played some of their songs that were made popular by Mobile Act; including, ‘Talk to Strangers’ and ‘Highness’ but also some of the songs only people who have their album would have known, such as ‘The Company We Keep’, ‘Almost Certainly Elsewhere’ and ‘Don’t Start Fires’.
Very few bands interact with the audience so much in-between songs and everyone clearly loved it when they did. In order to bury it into our heads that Phil was indeed a pheasant, the band got us shouting “PHEASANT” egging us on by saying that everyone in Wolverhampton shouted it louder. A second time of shouting “PHEASANT” someone in the audience finished by shouting “Woodpecker” which got everyone, including the band, laughing. The same person also shouted that it was their birthday and, somewhat politely, the drummer wished her a happy birthday. Down to earth lads are always loved and looking at the audience that showed up, they are greatly respected.
Many people have complained that Envy were selling out by appearing on Mobile Act, but, in my opinion, it was that show that got them known. Without it, it would have taken them much longer to be as popular as they are, even though they are fantastic!
Having only seen bands that you can ‘mosh’ to in the past, seeing Envy was a positive change and it was great being able to dance along to music that is unbelievably catchy. You can’t help but walk away from the venue humming one of their songs.
Sounding like a cross between The Clash and Franz Ferdinand, I believe they have a massive future ahead of them. All they need to do is keep being the happy-go-lucky lads that they are and play to the standard that they did tonight.
Review and photo – Georgina Walsh
Very good review, i saw them twice on their UK tour and both times were as amazing as humanly possible.
Thanks,
Adam.
haha i’m responsable for him being called phil haha me and a friend asked mark what he was called
he had said phil probably just to shut us up (haha) and we told everyone
it was awesome to see an official review mention his name
alas he was kidnapped a month later at sheffield. it was a sad event.
brum barfly was deffo their best gig 🙂 and they took me out drinking after i was very delighted 😀
but i dont remember someone shouting woodpecker haha