The Burning Hell played a short but thoroughly enjoyable set at the Sunflower, although I tend to feel that way about many of the bands that I cherish, especially in great venues. As only a three piece, Mathias on guitar, of course, with Ariel drumming, bass-clarineting, and singing too naturally, plus Darryn Brown on bass and mandolin. It's the songwriting that sets this bands apart however, so although it was pared down the bright side is it gave more room to the stories in the lyrics. Mathias chatted a little with the crowd, primarily urging us to give generously to Parkinson's UK for whom the evening was a fundraiser. He did reveal that he'd received many requests for the evening and despite lots of them having fallen out of their repertoire they did their best to oblige. Opening with The Stranger from 2016's Public Library, with its excellent plot twist, they also did The Things People Make, Part 2 by request, which went down well. An interesting choice was the extended story of Barbarians, even with the passage of time being sped along by Kom unwinding his first string to strum it signifying as much. It also medleyed in some Rage Against the Machine before merging directly into a cover of Dolly Parton's 9-5. To exhibit that Mathias still has it he spit Amateur Rapper with the hilarious "whip out my diction" line. Ariel also got to give us a vocal performance too by singing a solo song and then a duet with Mathias in their also-requested finale of Baby closer, Everything Will Probably Be Okay. An encore would have been nice as there's always more songs to choose from but I believe the full room was happy with all that they did get.
Nine Dart Finish were the middle openers (we missed the bottom bill band) and did a hearty job of rocking us. Three down-to-earth Birmingham blokes who were happy to be playing for us as they admitted they'd be playing in their gardens anyhow, oddly saying "naked" in unison. Mind you. they did take full advantage of the slot given them, playing at least a dozen songs rooted in rock, pop and punk without too much individualisation.
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