Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Before the day’s Threshold Festival entertainments had started, Siren had had a few of the performers which were making the Baltic Quarter their home for the weekend going through their paces, a pre-match warm up in which to shake any dust out of the lungs that could scupper a great performance. By the end of the day, Joe Symes and the Loving Kind were playing to a packed out audience who had seen many superb musicians during the day but who were in the mood for just one more superb act to finish the day with.

The band has been making great waves over the last few months and has represented their city very well, with some incredibly good sessions for the overseas market and press interviews in which the group has displayed sparkling wit and a keenness to get their music understandably noticed. Siren is arguably a great venue but it doesn’t really help a large band with its tight rounded shell. However, in true Merseyside spirit Joe Symes and the rest of this superb band made the most of the slot and not only seemed to give the audience exactly what they wanted but also showed exactly why so many people talk about them in excited and exalted tones.

Opening their time on the Siren floor with I’m Gonna Find out Someday, the steady beat of Colin White’s drum kit kept perfect time and took the metaphorical hand of the audience on a journey that side stepped and waltzed with elegant ease and which was enhanced by Dave Skilling’s flourishing keyboard.

Joe Symes sang his heart out on tracks such as Where Do I Belong, Ready To Ride, Fine Line and a superb and cutting version of their track You’re No Friends of Mine. There was even a special moment in which the group took the crowd by surprise with a small piece of The Doors’ hit L.A. Woman.

Joe Symes and the Loving Kind remain an absolute joy to listen to, an antipathies’ to the hard day and a scourge on the soul of the undesirable.

Ian D. Hall