My third visit to the iTunes festival and my briefest. Due to a scheduling error (my friend's hair appointment overran) I unfortunately missed most of the support act, Steve Appleton. I must admit I hadn't heard of him before so I wasn't too worried, but I did see him do a nice MJ cover and from the back of the room he looked a bit like comedian Russel Howard - so why wouldn't you want to check out his my space on these grounds alone?? Actually my other friends who had made it in on time said he was pretty good, which is probably a better recommendation...
Anyway, I had had a small crisis of confidence on the way to the gig was worried that I could only remember one song by The Hoosiers. Luckily I had my iPod with me so I was able to listen to all of their album while I was waiting for my friend and her hair to turn up, and was reminded that I actually really like the band. I'd seen them at Glastonbury last year but not been to one of their solo shows, and I had quite high expectations as I know they encourage their fans to dress up and the boys certainly ooze with personality in interviews. I was left a little bit disappointed on that front - it was pretty much a stand-up-and-play gig, although their brass section were wearing cool little winged helmets (and to be fair they score brownie points for having a brass section in the first place).
They played all their hits from their first album and also intro'd a couple of new tracks which were nice to hear. I think perhaps they hadn't played a full set for a little while as they seemed a bit tentative and the set was VERY SHORT INDEED, so much so that if I had paid money for the tickets I would have been a bit pissed off - they didn't even have an encore! Lead singer Irwin said that they probably wouldn't be playing again this year - from a quick check on Twitter they seem to be at the back end of finishing their second album, so I guess that makes sense.
So while their show was good and they can definitely play live, it wasn't a great show. I look forward to them coming back bigger and better next year.
You can download The Hoosier's live performance at the iTunes Festival now
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