Riffed

Catfish and the Bottlemen performed an intimate gig to a sold out crowd at the Fruit in Hull yesterday evening. 

Deemed as a warm-up gig for the Bottlemen's forthcoming festival season, Van McCann and the band didn't fail to please. Support came from Need and Breeze, Need opened to a swiftly filling up Fruit, warming the crowd with a solid set. Breeze followed, a band we've previously introduced, performing a brilliant set, of which the highlight being the opener 'Scent'. Each opened in style, and after pysching the crowd up, Catfish and the Bottlemen were up next. Although the Hull crowd were lucky the Bottlemen turned up, Van revealed their train had broke down and that they'd left a guitar on the broken down train, but when qouted as saying "We knew we had to pull this gig", stated they'd just booked a "big taxi" instead. 'Rango' opened Catfish's' set, with an extended intro where the band seemingly made a racket for over a minute until contrasting perfectly into Rango, which sparked the front sector of the crowd into hysteria, something of which was prominent througout the Bottlemen's set. 'Cocoon' and 'Pacifier' followed, and by this time Van begun to get to know the crowd, and asked them for a bit more "jumping around" before playing 'Pacifier', they obliged and McCann began to jump around with them. 'Pacifier' was followed by 'Sidewinder', then two of Catfish and the Bottlemen's biggest hits were played next, 'Kathleen' and 'Fallout'. 'Kathleen' is possibly the track Catfish are most known for, a song that really defines the band and superb is the word to define itself from last night, "I gotta give it you, you give me problems" was chanted in chorus from the Hull crowd in sync with lead singer Van, as well as bodies being thrown about all over in what was turning into a mindless front row. 'Kathleen' should have been a tough act to follow up, but when the Bottlemen jumped instaniously into 'Fallout', it wasn't so much. 'Fallout' being Catfish's' new single, taken from their forthcoming debut album 'The Balcony', has been recieving plenty of airplay via BBC Radio 1 of late, but most importantly was our Single Of The Week  4 weeks ago and it's no wonder as to why. A brilliant track, and even more so live. New track, '26' followed 'Fallout', " A real FIFA song this", Van stated as the band have previously been persuading EA Sports to use one of their tracks on their forthcoming game 'FIFA 15'. If EA Sports were to have been in the crowd last night to witness '26', we're sure they'd put it straight onto the game. '26' provides solid evidence that 'The Balcony' could be a real classic, and that Catfish aren't a band who'll release a couple good singles and their debut album then be a flop. We was nearing the end when the Bottlemen performed 'Homesick'. 'Homesick' being Catfish's' penultimate track, and before the band started to play, Van reiterated his thank you's to the Hull crowd and stated "We're gonna play the first track we ever recorded as a band, it kinda got things going and to be here performing it to you tonight is crazy, I know it may seem small but to us this is huge." And huge it was, ending with a nice touch, as Van got the Hull crowd singing in chorus with eachother. 'Tyrants' closed Catfish and the Bottlemen's set at the Fruit in Hull and in style, the longest and most powerful track Catfish have created proved the perfect set closer. Sending the front sector of the crowd into hysteria for the final time. 

Watch Catfish and the Bottlemen perform 'Kathleen' at the Fruit in Hull as recorded by RIFFED yesterday evening via Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raJiuNBzAXU

RIFFED x