Female fronted alt- rock band Red Vanilla celebrate the release of their debut EP Days Of Grey with a Dundee party bringing System Exclusive and Cloud House along for the ride.
System Exclusive
It’s fair to say System Exclusive travelled the furthest to play this show, coming in hot from Pasadena, California. The duo, Ari Blaisdell and Matt Jones bring a retro 80s vibe with their nostalgic synth sounds and beats. I felt their sound was as if The Ting Tings and Canadian duo Soft Cult played 80s video games, System Exclusive creatively merge synth pop and post punk rock, fairly edgy sound. Having fairly recently released their latest album ‘Click’, they got the opportunity to show it off to a Scottish crowd and for those there during their set it went down well.
Cloud House
5 piece indie rock outfit are main support for Red Vanilla and off the back of their latest single release Broken it was great to catch them live – finally! With some sound issues at the beginning of their set, they seemed unphased and still went all in. Front man Connor McCarry certainly knows how to create a vibe as he won over the crowd in a fairly reserved Beat Generator and had people singing along and clapping, a great way to win over new fans! Patrick Wallace (lead guitar) and Connor pull off some really nice harmonies and bounce off each other well on stage, while Jack Hughes (drums) and Calum Wray (bass) driving the pulse, keeping the rhythm section alive.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching Jack behind the kit, some really tasty fills in the set, adding a real spark to some of the songs. The band played a lot from their debut album Still Here which if you haven’t listened to it, you should, especially if Sam Fender is a rated artist amongst your music taste. It is so refreshing to see a saxophone on stage amongst indie rock bands again, it has been a while and it adds a real spice to a band! (although maybe I am super biased in this). The music man Morgan Cardwell, instrument swapped throughout the set between sax, keys and guitar, so he was kept extra busy.
A very fun set in a new area for the band, nice to hear latest single Broken live as it’s been on repeat the past few weeks. Cloud House have a lot to offer and I think a show to home fans would be so much fun. They provide a great opportunity for a powerful indie sing along, creating songs with catchy choruses and upbeat feels, even if they are about heartbreak!
Red Vanilla had a lot of friends, family and fans alike in Beat Generator to celebrate the launch of their debut EP Days Of Grey. A great send off for them before they hit the big smoke to support Dundee legend Kyle Falconer. Dundee new comers have been cooking up a storm and very quickly gaining momentum between festivals, single releases and dropping a very cool video for ‘Outside in’ which, if you know Dundee might recognise some familar spots!
Dramatic and moody opener to their set as they opened with just Lucas (drummer) and George (lead guitar) on stage, as they built up the song Anna began to sing and the audience showed they were here for a good time.
Front Woman Anna has a captivating stage prescence and appears so confident and sure of who she is and all that Red Vanilla are trying to achieve. She has a really commendable vocal range that could be heard throughout the set, in particularly during ‘Embers’ as some of those notes are pretty low, this song got the best reaction of the night and is obviously a crowd favourite as people held up their phone torches and sang along.
“Two years since we headlined this venue. We have waited a long time for this. We worked hard on this, relieved it is now out.” (Anna)
At times, I felt some of her vocal lines lacked a little something, it would be cool to hear some guitar lines backing up the melody or even some backing vocals from other members of the band. Listening to the EP, I don’t feel like this is neccessarily the same so a small tweak to a live show could make a difference to the depth of their sound.
Drummer Lucas, is a hard hitter behind the kit. He has so much energy and enthusiasm and easily caught my attention for the majority of the set. He’s fun to watch, a little bit like ‘Animal’ from the Muppets, in the best possible way. He absolutely does not take the back seat, keeps the band in impecible time with some cool changeovers.
This was the first time I’d caught Red Vanilla live, it’s refreshing to see that the Dundee music scene has a buzz around it again and bands like Red Vanilla help keep up that momentum. Having already got some festivals and shows with Kyle Falconer under their belt I don’t doubt we will be hearing a lot from this band!
If you are a fan of Scottish bands such as Swim School, Vukovi and Saint Vienna you will appreciate and should listen to Red Vanilla.
