People on Vacation + Lacey + Danny Gruff @ The Institute, 27th February 2015
The Temple, Birmingham; a small venue that tonight would hold less than a hundred people who had gathered to see Texan duo People on Vacation and their opening acts, Lacey and Danny Gruff.
First onto the stage was Danny Gruff who had been voted by People on Vacation fans to be the opening act on the UK leg of their tour. Having previously never heard of him, all that was known to me about him was that he was a solo performer with an acoustic guitar. If I’m honest I wasn’t expecting much and I certainly wasn’t expecting anything different; what I actually got was something that far exceeded my expectations. He opened with a song about editing your life details on the online encyclopedia; Wikipedia. You may be thinking that this is an odd subject for a song and you may be right but it worked. The song got laughs from beginning to end. Danny was quite the comedian between his songs too, continuing to entertain and get laughs from the whole room. Before starting the song ‘Skeleton’ he told us we were the experiment to see how a serious song would go down with people, although he did crack a joke before he started it. As it turns out he was extremely talented when it came to the serious songs too getting an enthusiastic round of applause when he finished.
The audience were clearly taken with Danny, which showed when he asked them to take part with a dance move during ‘Smile’. Although not everyone got involved in the dance a fair few did which to me shows he had won the room over. For any fans of the similar artist, Jonathan Coulton; this guy is definitely on par with him comically and actually surpasses him musically. If you haven’t heard Danny Gruff I highly recommend checking him out, he’s definitely found a new fan in me!
Following Danny Gruff and with barely a five minute gap were Lacey, a four piece band from Nottingham. These guys already had a few fans in the small venue; this was evident by the Lacey t-shirts that could be seen on various people dotted around the room.
They greeted the crowd and got a decent reaction of claps and cheers; opening with their latest single ‘Tonight’, which got people singing along from the off. For four average sized men, the stage was particularly small and thus they had no space to move around, but they still had a lot of energy and even though they were playing to a small crowd they gave it their all for every song. The audience were happy to join in when the band urged them to and responded whenever the guys spoke to them. In fact for a small group of people they were an enthusiastic bunch which was good to see! Continuing to impress this intimate crowd, Lacey went on to cover Jimmy Eat World’s, ‘Sweetness’. They gave the song their own vibe by slowing it down a little and they also didn’t play the guitar solo within the song but this isn’t a criticism. What they did worked; they made a well-known song their own and gave people who may not have been savvy with Lacey the opportunity to join in.
The only problem with Laceys’ set, which was likely due to the acoustics in the venue, was that at some points the vocals and the instruments drowned each other out causing a mismatch of sounds with the vocals being hard to hear. If you are a fan of Jimmy Eat World, Taking Back Sunday and You Me At Six you should give them a listen. From hearing them tonight, it’s clear that Lacey are destined for big things. They quite clearly love every moment of what they do which reflects in their set and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them take off and become extremely popular. Watch this space!
People on Vacation didn’t leave us waiting long before they took the stage. For anybody who doesn’t know, People On Vacation are a duo that is made up of Ryan Hamilton previously of Smile Smile, and Jaret Reddick of Bowling For Soup. Jaret has a very distinct voice which might leave you wondering how these guys don’t just sound like Bowling For Soup, but for the most part, they don’t. The only times when BFS have a hint of POV are when Jaret did more serious songs like ‘When We Die’ which may well have been where his inspiration for POV came from. Although the POV songs are on the more serious side of life, they have on-stage banter that might leave one blushing, and putting both of these together means these guys put on a superb show!
There was banter from the moment they were at their mics which had the whole room laughing but then they were soon into their first song ‘Prettiest Girl In The World’. Again between songs the jokes continued mostly between each other but they were extremely good at getting their fans involved and with it being such a small show they could basically speak to people on a one to one basis which was awesome to see. They could have quite easily bypassed that opportunity and at many points they responded to people that shouted out in the audience which resonated well with the crowd, as it added to the enjoyment of the evening.
They continued with their set (in between all the banter!) which heard people joining in with most songs. One thing that stood out, throughout the evening was the on tour bass player Rob’s funky dance moves, which showed he was enjoying the gig as much as the crowd. The highlight of the show however, was when Ryan came up with a song on the spot about a phrase he had learned in Scotland at a previous show; that phrase was “honkin’ o’ pish” which translates into smelling of piss (you may now be getting some idea of the type of banter we had been hearing during the show). Soon Rob had joined in with this spontaneous song, building the music up followed by their touring drummer Mickey and finally Jaret joined in with his guitar and vocals.
Although the band have great songs and they are enjoyable, they may actually be just as successful or even more successful as a comedy duo. Their onstage presence and rapport with each other is hilarious and they could honestly make it big just from their comedy.
The end of the show came and the band closed with ‘The Bitch Song’ by Bowling For Soup. They started it slowly with Ryan on his acoustic guitar and singing, giving it a People On Vacation vibe. When he had sung the first verse and had the crowd join in with the first chorus, the drums and the bass joined in which upped the tempo, and Jaret came in with his vocals and they played the rest of the song as we all know it by Bowling For Soup. They had hardly left the stage before were back for an encore in which they played ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ by Slade which was obviously a hit with everybody. Overall this was a brilliant night of awesome music and a lot of laughs.
Set lists:
Danny Gruff:
Hangover
Wikipedia
Skeleton
Smile
Stop this Carousel
Drink, Drink, Drink
Lacey:
Tonight
Hometown
Change the story
The last time
The middle (cover)
My eyes are open
Contender
Burning out
People On Vacation
Prettiest Girl in the World
Back to Being Friends
Because of the Sun
Rainy Day
You may not Believe in God
Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (Pink cover)
Dont Ask the Question
I’ve Got Your Back
She’s Not You
We Shoulda Made It
Honking o’ Pish (Full band song made up on the spot)
Lonely Fish
I Get You
The Bitch Song (Bowling for Soup cover)
Encore:
Cum On Feel the Noize (Slade cover)
Reviewer: Gemma Bywater
Photographer: Shaz Rafferty