Live Review: Inglorious – Birmingham
26th September 2021
Supt. Mercutio and Tim Prottey-Jones
Words & Photos: Shaun Hulme
This was my first visit to The Asylum in Birmingham so I had no idea as to what to expect but on arriving the first thing I was greeted with was a giant painting of a Gibson Les Paul adorning the front of the building, straight away I thought this place looks the ideal setting for a gig.
First up was Tim Prottey-Jones with his acoustic guitar, clearly a very competent musician playing some easy-going songs and doing enough to keep the eyes of those early arriving fans facing forward with a few fans singing along. Perfect start to the evening!
Next on stage is Mercutio, not a band I am familiar with but the whole point of a support band is to introduce them to potential new fans. They come thundering onto stage in typical rock fashion with their lead singer Ross William Wild clutching a bottle of beer and ripping into their opening number. The crowd at this point are a little subdued, but none the less the band carry on through their set with high energy with Ross using the steal girders above the stage to climb up and hang upside down from as if it was his own private jungle gym. By the end of their set the crowd had woke up a little and seemed perfectly primed for the main act.
So it was time for Inglorious, I had been looking forward to this! Before they came on stage one thing I noticed was although there were notably more fans in the room, it still seemed a bit sparse. Everyone was spaced out and I put it down to post pandemic nerves, plus the fact it was a Sunday evening.
They came flying straight out of the traps into, 'She Won’t Let You Go' and whipping the excitement up in the fans with a couple of fast upbeat songs including one of my favourites, 'Breakaway', this giving the two guitar shredders a chance to show what they can do.
Now I don’t say this lightly, but such is the power and range of Nathan James vocals I find myself drawing similarities with one of the greatest vocalists to ever grace the rock genre, Sammy Hagar!
Next up is the first track from their new album 'Heroine', a cover of the Miley Cyrus track 'Midnight Sky' which went down great with the crowd. Skip forward a few tracks and the gaps in the crowd had now filled, and everyone seemed more relaxed with the gig reassembling to something more pre pandemic.
Nathan addresses the crowd to introduce the song that inspired the album 'Heroine', 'Barracuda' and I am still trying to figure out how he hit the high notes during for this! Next came one of the highlights of the night, a cover version of Alanis Morisette’s 'Uninivited'. This was one of those songs where the audience were still, motionless and simply captivated by what they were witnessing. Truly a stunning performance followed by a few acoustic numbers with Phil Beaver stepping from behind the drums and showing his talent to take on the 12 string duties.
Later was without a doubt my personal highlight of the evening, a version of Cyndi Lauper’s 'Time after Time', once again showing Nathan’s exquisite vocal range. Finishing with the last few songs including 'Holy Water', 'We Will Ride' through to the encore of 'Until We Die'.
In summary these guys know how to put a rock show on, drawing on their clear classic rock influences and controlling the audiences emotions throughout the performance with a good flow of high energy tracks followed by a few slower numbers and then hitting the audience with their favourites.
There is just one question I find myself asking, given the amazing vocals, the amazing shredding guitarists, brilliant beats, bass and keyboard playing, along with a great back catalogue of songs and stage showmanship… how are these guys not selling out bigger venues?
If you like your classic rock, then you need to give these guys a listen.
Live Photo Credits: Shaun Hulme / SRK Lens
