This is an excerpt of an article written by Tom Girard
Over the last year Elliot Falla & The Blue Valentines have released a series of singles while gigging around Brighton. For their latest release, So Easy, they returned to Falla’s home island of Guernsey to launch the track with a show at The Vault.
Before they took to stage though new band Yes Kevin kicked things off playing largely a collection of modern indie covers, with a few curve balls thrown in, including Oasis’ Supersonic, Artic Monkeys’ When The Sun Goes Down and Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer.
While they were slightly hampered by having to play with a last-minute stand in drummer thanks to a football injury (though the stand in, former Problematic drummer, Michael Davies, did a great job), Yes Kevin still put on a solid performance warming the audience up nicely and I think with a little more confidence and experience they could be a great addition to any rock show.
The last time I saw Elliot Falla play live was either as a solo artist or with his trio before heading to university in the U.K, to say he’s developed somewhat since then would be an understatement.
From the start tonight it was clear The Blue Valentines were as tight an outfit as they come with the rhythm section providing some suitably swinging and groovy backing (I was particularly impressed by drummer Jake Lilywhite, who had a playing style I could just watch by itself), while guitarist Andrew Stevens combined some mean power blues sounds with more subtle parts.
Over this Falla’s characteristic vocals and acoustic guitar playing completed a package that went down a storm with a very onside (if somewhat small) audience and demonstrated that the band have found their niche in the well trodden area of blues.
As it went on the set felt a little front loaded with the punchy stuff but it was good to see a young band exploring a range of sounds within their chosen style and, as the set closed with the new single and an encore of one of Falla’s older tracks, You’re All Gone, the initial power returned for a strong close.
While the band’s recordings so far have been perfectly fine, seeing them live showed they have a real extra power and energy and, if and when they can capture this on record, they will become an undeniable force to be reckoned with, but in the meantime Elliot Falla & The Blue Valentines are already an impressive live prospect and it was clear to see the strong development both in songwriting and performing from Falla himself tonight.
