With the crowd surfing, ceiling pole swinging and high kicks, I think it is fair to say that there was no absence of energy in The Pigeon Detectives performance on Tuesday night. Jo Peplow-Revell went along.
The band consisting of Matt Bowman (lead vocals), Ryan Wilson (guitar), Dave Best (bass guitar), Jimmi Naylor (drums) and Oliver Main (guitar) are all from Leeds and have been best friends since primary school.
Both their support bands, The Dead Blues and The Mexanines also come from Leeds and they started the evening on a high. The Dead Blues echoed The Pigeon Detectives indie rock n roll genre, which opened the evening with a sense of liveliness. This was followed by The Mexanines who have a more Americano sound with a saxophone and trumpet mixed in with the indie sound of the guitars and drums.
With the gig completely sold out, The Platform was packed. Lead singer Matt didn’t have to encourage the crowd much to get involved. There was plenty of excitement surging through the audience as Matt also encouraged members of the crowd to get up on each other’s shoulders.
With their fourth album ‘We Met at Sea’ released in April this year, the show had a mix of old and new songs. The band came out to play one of their new releases this year ‘Animal’ and then mixed in some classics such as ‘I found out’ and ‘Done in secret’. All the songs from their new album went down well with the audience and the crowd even cheered when there was a minor technical issue with the lead microphone.
One thing I love about The Pigeon Detectives is the constant buzz of energy that pulsates from the Lead singer to the back of the room. You can see the connection all the band members have with Jimmi nodding to Oliver and Ryan when he can, and then Dave backing Matt’s vocals in some of the songs.
The band’s music is an upbeat alternative indie genre; the guitar and drums kept the crowd bouncing around. Then, when they played slower songs such as ‘Nothing to do with you’ there was a sea of hands almost touching the ceiling swaying from side to side.
Matt told the crowd how they almost always come back to play in Lincoln when they tour. Their last visit to Lincoln was when they performed at Tokyo nightclub in November last year. They have also performed in the Engine Shed main room. Matt shouted across the room, “It’s so good to be back at the Engine Shed!”
As the band finished their set they left the very sweaty crowd chanting, “we want more!” Greeted back with cheers for their encore, they started back up with ‘Unforgettable’ from their new album and had to leave with a very energetic classic ‘Take her back.’
So even on their fourth album, The Pigeon Detectives are still as lively as ever and know how to interact with their crowd. There are still eight tour dates left, finishing in their hometown of Leeds.