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Despite the miserable weather on Tuesday night, a full crowd braved the cold to head to Cardiff’s ‘The Moon’. A place that has the sort of atmosphere you need to experience to understand. Before APOSTLE headlined the show, three support acts came on to (successfully) cheer up the crowd and distract them from the bleak weather outside.
Kicking it all off was Beatbox Hann, a Welsh Beatboxer who, so far in his career, has various accolades including running and organising the Welsh Beatbox Championships. Being no beatbox connoisseur myself, I wasn’t too sure what to expect but I was blown away. Much of the beatboxing was accompanied by a gentle, but droney bass that got me into some sort of trance, proven by the fact I watched most of his performed with my jaw to the ground, only stopping to clap when each song finished.
Next up was the comedy rap duo, Salmon Jack. These guys really picked up the atmosphere of the room from the start with a little audience participation- getting everyone in the room to get dancing with some fun one-two-step dance moves. To accompany this, came their jolly and catchy music which mainly consisted of ratting snare beats to carry their lyrics which ranged from singing about the sheer zestiness of life to more darker topics.
Following Salmon Jack was the band Tales In The Shade, who brought a folk-come-jazz genre to the night. With a foot tapping opening song, the rest of their set only got better somehow. The band’s female singer had a voice comparable to iconic female country singers which lifted the groups presence even more. Alongside this came an incredible saxophone player who, again, got the audience swaying and dancing along. The male lead song the closing song, which ended up being my favourite song song of the set which had a memorable chorus with lyrics about medicated friends and pulled out notes and slow drumming beats.
Finally, it was time for the night’s headliners, the Cardiff/London based APOSTLE consisting of Sion, Joel, Carys and Tom. Having released 3 great singles already, I’d been looking forward to seeing how their recorded tracks would transfer into being played live, and needless I was not disappointed. They’ve already secured radio time on Tom Robinson’s Six Music and Radio Cymru so it’s needless to say they’re a band to keep an eye on. Opening with some up beat The Libertines come James Bay sounding guitar rhythms to most of their songs got the audience engaged with the band instantly. Their song lyrics are catchy, the most memorable of which being the hook of their song ‘Luck Be On My Side’ with sprawling instrumental aspects that keep the listener interested. Of course, their more sobre song ‘In the Dying Day’ follows a similar pattern but has an intense drum and synth sounding interlude which transferred incredibly to a live show.
Ginny Drake, Cardiff
