It's been a great year for British rock group Catfish and the Bottlemen. The alternative band released their debut album in the UK last year and followed that up with a US release at the beginning of 2015. The album, entitled The Balcony has received critical acclaim, and is towards the top of my personal list for favorite albums of the year. With the help of a few radio singles, Catfish is currently on their second headlining tour of the US this year.
While traveling for work, I was able to squeeze in a night in LA to catch this young group. The show was at the Fonda Theatre, and was close to sold out. The audience was on the younger side, but was absolutely ready when Catfish hit the stage just after 10pm.
The England natives opened to the sound of jumping feet with 'Rango.' Right away, you could tell the band was dialed in and the crowd was loving it. Every song seemed to evoke more jumping and singing, as the band rattled through 'Pacifier,' 'Business' and 'Kathleen' towards the first half of the set.
The best received song was current radio single 'Cocoon.' If you're unfamiliar with the band, this is the song of theirs to check out. It has an Arctic Monkeys feel with a friendly chorus to get the crowd going. I also must give some love to 'Tyrants,' which provided an epic ending.
Obviously the driving force behind the band is lead singer Van McCann. The frontman had tons of energy and was infectious to watch on stage. While the backing band members seemed much more casual, Van was constantly moving across the stage, ripping through guitar solos, and wailing along the vocals. It's no surprise Van was voted biggest rock star by Consequence of Sound after Catfish scored the most shared set online at Glastonbury this year.
While Van was center stage all night, he dismissed his band mates towards the end of the set to perform 'Hourglass' acoustically. This was a nice change up hearing the acoustic guitar. I'd say 'Hourglass' and the outro for 'Homesick' were probably the best two sing a longs of the night.
With only one album worth of material to play off, the guys were done in just under an hour. They definitely extended some songs with longer instrumental sections, but they didn't play any other tunes in the works or covers. Nevertheless though, hearing one of my favorite albums of the year in its entirely was completely satisfying.
Overall impressions was that this band has a great sound and are poised to blow up in America eventually. They may need another album, or big single to get them more exposure, but the sound is absolutely there. They also seemed very appreciative and thanked the fans multiple times for coming out. Lastly, a shout out to lead singer Van McCann for being such a rock star.
Concert Rating: 3.5 Stars
(skip ahead to 2:00 pas strange photos intro)
SETLIST:
1. Rango
2. Pacifier
3. Sidewinder
4. Fallout
5. 26
6. Business
7. Kathleen
8. Homesick
9. Hourglass
10. Cocoon
11. Tyrants
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