Review: The Sunbeams

The Sunbeams

The Railway, Knottingley, Saturday 1st December 2012

So often you tend to find yourself going to gigs and watch bands rock up, do an “indie by numbers” set, and head off. That’s why watching The Sunbeams play at The Railway pub made a great change.
Being a three piece band with a sound that you’d probably describe as having a low-fi alternative sound, it’d be relatively easy and somewhat lazy to draw comparisons to Wakefield’s finest, The Cribs. However, you can hear the guys are that bit smarter with traces of alternative American bands such as The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr and particularly Pavement springing to this bloggers’ mind. The combination of smart, linear riffing, infectious bass lines and great vocal interplay between bassist Adam and guitarist Gaz, made a great set.

Originals such as ‘Drag It Out’ and ‘How to Start a Hurricane’ are well crafted low-fi indie tracks, and combined with a few covers thrown in for good measure, it proved to be an impressive night for the trio. It’s hard to imagine many bands that will cover Joy Division’s ‘Transmission’ and Shaking Stevens’ ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ in the same set and carry it off in style, but The Sunbeams did just that. ‘Transmission’ in particular highlighted the quality of drummer Eddie who was impressive throughout, but really came to the fore when re-creating Stephen Morris’ relentless drumming from the 1979 classic.

It’s very rare that you see a band focused solely on the music, and the performance from The Sunbeams was just that. No frills, no gimmicks, just three guys playing honest, memorable music, and singing like they meant it. Great stuff.

Check out more of The Sunbeams at their Facebook page, Soundcloud and Youtube Channel.