Gig review: Echobelly at Metronome, with Blue Violet

It was a well-filled Metronome room which greeted alternative-leaning indie rock group Blue Violet. The band have morphed beautifully over the past two years, developing their song in a more glamorous, rich direction after re-forming from Americana outfit Broken Bones Matilda (you can read more about them in our recent interview).

Sarah Gotley is a fantastic front-woman, injecting energy from the first second on stage, while Sam provides a staunch lead guitar presence and husky, hazy backing vocals beside her. A shout out, too, for the incredibly cool bass player and drummer who both provided spot-on rhythmical support.

Blue Violet's set was at most times powerful, with some gentler moments, but they made their presence felt for the full half hour. They were confident, but never out of control and that energy just kept on coming. The set included some older songs: opening with Undercover was a great way to announce their presence, and the slide from that into the sultry Imagine Me demonstrated their flexibility. Despite this being a support set, the band used the time effectively to showcase some new material, too, including the beguilingly saucy Sweet Success which will feature on their new album Faux Animaux. 

Judging by the enthusiastic comments at the merch table afterwards, and the amount of T-shirts being shifted, Blue Violet won quite a few new fans in Nottingham and we can only hope they find a way to fit in a headline show during their tour early in 2025.

I'd missed seeing Echobelly in concert in the 90s (writes Michael Prince), but somehow I knew most of the songs. Nevertheless I was excited. As the temperature outside fell subzero, Sonya glided around the stage with such genuine warmth to a mesmerising refrain, before the band burst out into I Can't Imagine. The audience loved the segue into Car Fiction later in the song.

Clearly picking up on their contemporaries, Echobelly nevertheless cut a clear difference from the others. A band that refused, nay revoked, the "Lad Culture" of the 90s and were deeply political in their music. Making a reference to all the strong women out there, Sonya Madan reminded us, "We weren't the sexist generation". Proving that women can be pop stars and stand their own, against overwhelming odds, tonight she gave inspiration to women young and older to be proud of themselves. Songs about drugs and partying, caring for others and having faith in oneself in your 20s, as well as now; ah the optimism of youth; the wisdom of age. Sonya sauntered around the stage with grace and thought, smiling throughout. 

During a short delay, she joked with her bandmates, "Are you ready Glen? "No" . "Shall we all say 'come on Glen? Come on Glen, Come on Glen'..."

What was beautiful about this night was just how much Echobelly songs had seeped into my mind over the years, and their set brought back wonderful memories. The 90s were remembered for all the wrong bands and wrong reasons and the likes of Echobelly have been neglected in that sense. They tick all the right boxes in my mind of great music, thoughtful lyrics and their attitude and politics being on the "correct" side.

I'm glad they didn't leave Great Things to the end of the show, but treated it as a normal song in the main part of the set. There was an encore, though, including King of the Kerb, and then they were gone, leaving a happy and very satisfied crowd.

Echobelly performed at Metronome on 27th November 2024, with support from Blue Violet.

@echobelly_official / @weareblueviolet