TURTLE TEMPO

Raring to go with a brew, always in hand, Trudy and The Romance kicked off their headline tour in EBGBS, with a loud and notable bang.

I first discovered the Trudy boys when seeing them support The Big Moon in late October, in the smaller room of the Arts Club. After the first support act Vynce, they approached the stage shyly, yet cheekily and took the crowd by surprise.

Their infectious sound and likeability made the show all the more worthwhile. Whilst talking to The Big Moon girls after the show, they had nothing but praise and songs to sing about Trudy’s performance and I couldn’t agree more. Since then, the trio have been listed in DIY mag’s, Class of 2016 and are the ones to watch in this upcoming year.

Trudy and The Romance warmed up the crowd with with a new song, which was well received by the audience. Soon after, was the 2015 single, ‘Behave’. The live performance of Behave really captured the meaning and desperate longing that the lyrics conveyed.

Well-recognised, ‘Wild’ was quick to follow and transported your ears back to the 50’s, a song simply about a girl, driving them wild. The upbeat and infectious tune meant that the Trudy boys had all the backup dancers they needed; only they were in the crowd. People were twisting and hand jiving like you’d never seen and only put a smile on all of Trudy’s faces.

Brad’s rendition of, ‘I Want You, I Need You, I Love You’ by Elvis Presley, did not go under appreciated. With nothing but shouts of encouragement from the people watching, the drummer emerged from behind his drums and charmed the crowd with his deep undertones, with Olly and Lew’s shoo-wop’s and harmonies cascading behind. 

The momentum soon came to a slow, by the sultry, brooding bass line, provided by Lewis Rollinson in the tune, My Baby’s Gone Away; which had the room swaying and singing along. Singer Oliver Taylor soon came in with his raspy yet soulful voice and Brad Mullins kept the pulsing beat on drums, in which everyone was almost hypnotised by. The trio’s latest single, released in late 2016, ‘Sandman’, started the nearing of the end of the show, keeping everyone in high spirits and shouting the words along with them. Sandman, is just the first snippet of the character who will be making a lot more appearances in their future songs. The Sandman, if you will.

Bringing the show to a close, was the old time favourite, ‘He Sings’. Melodious ooh’s and ahh’s, courtesy of Brad and Lewis, brought a certain elegance to the performance and the tempo gave a sense of surprise by starting off slow for verses and picking the speed up during the chorus, meaning that when the speed went off, so did the audience. As the show finished, you could hear nothing but praise and awe at the guys’ explosion of music, people asking for encore after encore and gushing to remind the Trudy boys of what a great time they had.

Even the support acts put the crowd in a good mood. Tiny Trees, fairly new back onto the music scene, had everyone warmed up for the live music to feature tonight. And duo, Her’s, fresh off performances in SXSW in Austin, Texas, also intrigued the crowd with their electric energy and youthful sound. And of course, the performance of Speed Racer.

Trudy and The Romance are ‘that’ shot of new music we’ve been waiting for.