Detroit Social Club

Friday 8th April

I arrived at Plugged Inn based at the Homeside, in Sunderland, at 8.30pm. I knew Detroit Social Club were not going on until about 10ish, but I wanted to make sure that I had a good spot as I knew that it would be busy. By 9pm there was roughly 30 to 40 people there. The support band, a four piece from Newcastle, came on stage and launched into their first song. Once finished the singer introduced the band - The Matadors along with the title of the next song, "Spanish Beast". Immediately I knew that I was going to like them. They were loud and to me, the singers voice was reminiscent of Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys. The next track that they played was called "Lock and Key". This reminded me of Pigeon Detectives "I Found Out". Another track and band that I like. Finally they finished their set with a track called "Dancing in Shadows". This song had a really catchy military sounding drum beat. They were well recieved and I would definitely recommend that you try to catch them.

By the time DSC was due to come on stage, the place was absolutely heaving. The 10 tickets held back by the venue had been quickly snapped up and the gig was a complete sell out, which is nothing new when they play their native North East. Burn seemed pleased to be playing in Sunderland where he said they hadn't played for about 18 months. (He must have forgotten they played Split Festival, in September last year). They opened with early single, "Rivers and Rainbows" to mass cheering as the crowd surged forwards, towards the stage. The sound was far superior to their last gig at Durham Live Lounge. Singer David Burn's vocals were spot on until the beginning of the second track, "Kiss the Sun", when all of a sudden he couldn't be heard. It turned out that someone had knocked a drink over near the sound engineer's desk and he had to quickly turn everything off briefly,to save the equipment blowing up! David proceeded to have some banter with the crowd about being a Sunderland fan and then, ironically, launched into "Black and White", much to the crowds amusement. He sang this song more as an acoustic version. The lights were turned off and the band could not be seen from where I was standing as it was too dark. The venue definitely needs to look at getting some uplighters for the front of the stage. They continued to play the tracks from their album, "Existence". By 10.45 it was starting to thin out slightly. By now frontman Burn, had ditched his guitar and was doing his now familiar shamanic moves, in which he becomes totally wrapped up in the moment. The second last song of the night was one of my favourites, "Northern Man", to which he totally rocked it out. Once again he had the crowd chanting Sunderland songs and I had to remind myself that I was at a gig and not at a football match. Their final song of the night was new single, "I am Revolution", the first release on their own label, FuckPop Records. A hooky, instantly memorable slice of psych-rock which serves as a perfect taster for the second phase of the newly independent Detroit Social Club.