Tilly & The Wall + Semifinalists + Emmy The Great @ The Leadmill

Having mis-timed the journey to the venue, Sheffield's Leadmill, i only managed to catch the last few minutes of Emmy the Great's set, but what i did catch was something special. With just her and guitar on stage, she had the entire crowd captivated with her gorgeously dramatic indie-folk tales of love, loss and parties. I have to say i have a thing for pretty girls with acoustic guitars, so i think i've found my new crush, but don't let that detract anything from my review, Emmy is a great performer, confident and assured with a bunch of great tunes.


The first sight i had of Semifinalists was one of them, wearing a sideways flourscent green cap and big white glasses, flailing around on stage, while yelping into the microphone. The grin on my face was huge. But unfortunately the rest of their set didn't live up to the opening song. It was a bit of a hit-and-miss set with songs flowing really nicely then suddenly falling apart halfway through. It was all a bit messy.


The first time i heard Tilly & The Wall, i had a problem with the tap-dancing or to be more precise a niggling thought in the back of my mind that without Jamie's tapping toes, Tilly would just be like any other indie-folk band out there. I found out tonight that its live where this band come into their own
Their stage entrance was full of handclapping, foot-stomping and whooping goodness and that was the way the rest of the set stayed. Even though they struggled with bad sound, their enthusiasm,energy and smiling-inducing tunes pulled the set through. They played an even mix of songs from their first album "Wild Like Children" and new album "Bottom Of Barrels" tracks, which have been doing the blog rounds recently. Highlights included 'Bad Education', in all its synchronised flamenco dancing glory, 'Sing Songs Along' and encore 'Night Of The Living Dead'. Can't wait to hear the new album proper.

Check out The Daily Growl for a review of the london show

Here's a few tunes to feast your ears on:
Emmy The Great - Absentee
Tilly & The Wall - Bad Education
Tilly & The Wall - Night Of The Living Dead
check out their myspaces for extra songs and info

Go buy these, please!!:
Tilly & The Wall - Wild Like Children
Tilly & The Wall - Bottom Of Barrels (Out July 10th in UK)