Jamie T + The Wytches @ De Montford Hall, Leicester, 5th October 2016
Jamie Treays tends to keep himself out of the limelight, and that’s the way it has been since we last saw him two years ago in 2014. This time around its to tour his forth album, Tricks.
I was surprised at just how few people there were inside Leicester’s De Montford Hall tonight when I arrived, It was nearly an hour after doors and just in time to see The Wytches, a four piece punk band hailing from Peterborough. There seems to be a fair amount of buzz around these guys at the moment, with a decent amount of support from the BBC, and a well received second album just released. They started playing to a pretty empty room and filled it at a decent rate, they even had security looking a little nervous with a few mosh pits opening up towards the front. And despite not really being able to understand any of what was being sung, I quite liked the sound I was hearing, so If psychedelic garage punk is your thing, check them out..
After a short stage turnaround, the lights dimmed and the man himself walked onto the stage followed by his band. By this point though the room was packed, and it was clear that the crowd were pleased to see him. Jamie, being 30 this year and with it being a decade since he first emerged, has a pretty broad fan base. Seeing the number of 15 and 16 year-olds jostling for space at the front made me feel a little old until I turned around and saw the older fans, perhaps closer to me in age at the back and looking equally as excited.
Being a man of few words on stage, its straight into a couple of songs from the new album with Power Over Man and Tesco Land being the first two. With a trio of equally strong albums before Trick and a staunchly loyal fan base, it was going to be tough to have a set list that would please everyone. For my money it was pretty spot on though. It was always going to be fairly heavy with material from the new album and although there were a few moments where he didn’t connect as well with the crowd as I have seen at previous live shows, I think perhaps because the album is still very fresh to a lot of fans, all it took was a song like Salvador or Sheila and by the time he had finished the first bar of those the crowd were back on it and singing every single word out loud.
Jamie and his band looked as good as I’ve ever seen them on stage, He looked as comfortable by himself for songs like Sign of the Times as he did when they were all going nuts to crowd favourites like Sticks ’n’ Stones. I like their no nonsense approach too. Its all about the music. They came on, looked like they had an ace time playing together and left.. No staged encore, just a long enough pause to let us know it was nearly the end and a thank you before finishing on Back in the Game and Zombie.
Jamie T Setlist
Power Over Men
Tesco Land
Operation
Salvador
The Prophet
Peter
Don’t You Find
If You Got the Money
368
Sign of the Times
Man’s Machine
British Intelligence
Crossfire Love
Sheila
Tinfoil Boy
Rabbit Hole
Sticks ’n’ Stones
Back in the Game
Zombie
Review: Hannah Dent
Photographs: John Dent