The Sundowners, St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool. Liverpool Calling. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Class shows at all times, flair is a trait that just announces itself before a word is spoken, an action inspired or a thought performed in the cold hazy obscured light or in the realms of a thousand eyes trained upon the deed; for The Sundowners, class is ready to be achieved at all times.
Like the band they followed, the ever impressive The Mono L.P.’s, and the headliners Space, the five members that make up the Sundowners quickly furrowed a route into the reputation of electrifying music and startling exhilaration from the off. Not for nothing are the excellent Niamh Rowe and Fiona Skelly easily compared to the likes of Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson for the crisp sharp musically minded lyrics and guitar playing but they both have an tremendous element of danger trapped like a rattlesnake in a basket in the lyrics, the monumental menace which sits with wonderful murkiness in the libretto. It is an air of vulnerability that is coiled, ready to strike first, in which Alfie Skelly, Tim Cunningham and Jim Sharrock are only too keen to take on and bring upfront to the audience.
The sharp coolness of Fiona Skelly juxtaposing the alert and exposed beating heart of the musically exciting Ms. Rowe is not just there to see on stage, it sits at the heart of their music. With The Sundowner’s set list having to be pretty much on top form to emulate The Mono L.P.’s driving sincerity and to give the audience inside St. Luke’s the chance to keep the adrenaline pumping like a machinist working overtime for double pay and piece work combined, what transpired was stimulating beauty.
Tracks such as the opener Wild As The Season/Hunter, If Wishes Were Horses, the stunning new track of Into The Light, the gracious Hummingbird, Soul Responder and the latest single Medicine all went a long way to making sure that the electricity that passed between band to crowd never faltered. To see into the eyes of this band is to realise that all the hard work that goes on, not just in this band, but in every band in the area, is real, so real that it hurts to see it not get the absolute recognition is deserves in other parts of the country.
The Sundowners are one of the finest examples of great music bought together under the maelstrom of the 21st Century Mersey Sound.
Ian D. Hall