Gig Review: Yasmine and The Euphoria, Lunar Bird and Year of the Dog at Cardiff Castle

My social media feeds over the last two weeks have been filled with nothing but everyone back at gigs for the first time, whether that be Gorillaz at the O2, one man and his dog at the local pub or Reading Festival. Every single time, I've been more jealous than the last, yet still trying my best to live vicariously through shaky camera footage and drunken screams. Until recently my first gig was going to be Biffy Clyro, then it was XL Life this Friday, but ultimately it ended up being a grassroots music night at Cardiff Castle on Saturday, and it was 10 times better than I could have expected. I was fortunate enough to win tickets from Minty's Gig Guide (check it out on socials for all the latest news on live music in Cardiff), with absolutely zero knowledge of any of the bands playing, besides a quick gander at their Spotify pages.

To say I was blown away by the music would be an understatement. Not only was the night some of the best live music I have ever heard, but the bands are up there with some of the most exciting and talented up-and-comers I have heard in a while. Before I get into the meat of this review, it's worth saying that the gig was put on by the Cardiff Council and hosted by Porters in Cardiff, both of whom did an absolutely incredible job. To see a local council invest in grassroots music in this way is so amazing to see, and the support that showed up for them is just as impressive.

First on were Yasmine and the Euphoria, a female-led power-pop come garage-rock group led by the enigmatic and downright captivating frontwoman Yasmine Davies. Even if this band had absolutely crap songs (which is far from the truth), she would have saved the entire set with her mix of stage presence, charm and the best live vocals that I have ever heard. Yasmine and the Euphoria came out strong with a one-two punch of 'Carousel' and 'Lovers', the perfect energetic set-up that proved they weren't there to mess about, with Yasmine showing off some phenomenal vocal range and belts right off the bat. It's worth saying that Yasmine is far from the only talented musician in the band, Jac Kelshaw is a fantastic lead guitarist with a big stage presence in his own right. Max Theobold on bass pulled out some 80s-esque power-solos, who has some genuine technical prowess. Finally, Ellie Strong (who plays for both Yasmine and the Euphoria and Lunar Bird) may have stayed hidden at the back, but provides some much-welcome vocal harmonies and very steady drumming throughout their repertoire.

Whilst the band excelled at the upbeat energetic cuts, tracks like 'Change' and my personal favourite 'Sunflower' show that they can change it up and pull off slow-beats just as well. Behind Yasmine's Bonnie Tyler meets Shania Twain vocals is some songwriting with a massive amount of potential, the lyricism in the tracks subtly weaving emotion and power, with the instrumentation being technically impressive without being needlessly faffy. All-in-all, Yasmine and The Euphoria are one of the best bands in the scene right now who deserve to be on a tour supporting a major artist very soon.

Secondly was Lunar Bird, the Italian/Welsh dreampop/ dreamgaze outfit, whose enchanting tracks perfectly soundtracked the sunset in the castle. Frontwoman Roberta Musillami may not quite have had the in-your-face stage presence of Yasmine, but with the music being a beautiful mash between My Bloody Valentine, James Blake and the Cocteau Twins, this wasn't exactly what you'd want. Instead, the band took a bit more of a stand-back and play approach, focusing on executing tracks such as 'Swallow Man Aviary' and 'Emerald & Blue'. Although Ross Davies on the synthesizer looked as though he belongs in a swedish black metal band rather than an Italian Dreampop outfit, he played excellently, harmonizing beautifully with Roberta's vocals. Lunar Bird played an excellent set, but would perhaps more suit an indoor setting, with their trance-like atmosphere getting slightly lost in the open space of the castle courtyard.

By the time The Year of the Dog were about to come on stage I was ready to let loose a bit, needing a little bit of an energy boost after a couple pints of Welsh Smooth. Year of the Dog had stood out to me a bit when I'd briefly listened prior to the gig, a brassy sound with slight ska-influences, I was expecting a good but possibly slightly slow show. Opener 'Hair of The Dog' proved this to be extremely untrue, coming out at full pelt with more energy than I thought was possible for a band with three brass instruments. Frontman Felix Lindsell-Hales instantly engaged the audience, getting every single person there pushing up to the barrier and jumping straight away, making the 100-something crowd feel more like a thousand. And it just kept going from there, the band moving from track to track with ferocity, including an incredible cover of 'Acceptable In The 80's', showing off the band's unique blend of Madness-like Ska, brass-band instrumentals and Jamie T-inspired rapping and skiffing.

While the other two groups were very much finding their feet and trying to get a feel for playing gigs, Year of The Dog were in charge from the very first minute, playing the audience perfectly and not letting us stop for one second to catch a breath. There are certain bands that are created solely to play live, and Year of the Dog are the epitome of that.

It was an incredible night, I've found some of my new favourite bands and I've fallen back in love with live music. Bring on more like this.

9/10

Socials:

Yasmine And The Euphoria

https://www.instagram.com/yasmineandtheeuphoria/