“It’s about to get a bit emo in here,” shouts McGowan as he picks up his acoustic guitar. The Southampton born singer stopped off at The Bodega on his lengthy UK tour on Thursday, February 29 and he certainly did not disappoint.
The cheeky chap is known for his down to earth, nitty-gritty lyricism about his life experiences. Sean McGowan opened his set with the powerful punk track ‘Off the Rails’. The angry sounding song pumped the crowd up and set the tone for the rest of the set.
Even though he claimed he was not trying to start a turf war as he said that his Nottingham gig was miles better than the one he did in Leicester a few nights previous. This encouraged lots of cheers for Nottingham and a bit of friendly rivalry between the two East Midlands cities.
My personal favourite was ‘£5.25’, an anthem for the crowd who were singing back every word. The track taken from his EP, ‘The People’s Music’ is about never learning, with Sean asking himself the question ‘when will I grow up?’.
With a brief pause as we wished the bassist a Happy Birthday, Sean dedicated his song ‘Springhill’ to his best friend whose mum passed away on Sean’s 18th birthday. Describing her as a second mum, it was a raw, emotional performance that you could not help tearing up at.
It illustrates that Sean means every word he sings in his songs, which is often quite rare to see compared to some modern artists nowadays.
Sean was joined by his support act Brand New Friend for a heavier version of his 2012 track ‘Neverland’. Jumping around the stage it was great to see a band enjoying themselves so much on stage.
Finishing with the gritty ‘No Show’, Sean described the show as the best on the tour, even taking to Twitter afterwards to thank everyone for coming down. Once again, this proves that Nottingham is always one of the best places to appreciate and enjoy live music.
You can listen to Sean McGowan’s latest release ‘Son of The Smith’ on Spotify.
By Becky Lumbard