Wow, what can I say about the BellX1 gig last Wednesday night except it was great. I’ve seen BellX1 play live about eight or nine times now and I think this gig was one of the best. The photograph to the left was taken by Donal and he will have more pictures of BellX1 and the supporting acts on his blog very soon (I hope!) so check it out.

We arrived into the Savoy in time to see the Delerentos play a few songs and they were really good. It was my first time seeing them play live. The next act up was Simple Kid, I had seen him play with a band in the Savoy before and I was impressed. This time he was on his own except for his computer which provided some fine backing to his songs (until it was hit with some sort of technical glitch). He played about six songs and one of them was about celebrities with a great sing-a-long line ‘Celebrities go home, go home to your Momma’. Whilst watching Simple Kid play the banjo and harmonica I was struck by the thought that if Glen Hansard and Beck Hanson ever had a love child it would look like Simple Kid!

BellX1 came on stage at about 10.30pm and started the show with ‘My First Born for a Song’, one of my favourites from the Flock album. This song gave Paul the perfect opportunity to display some tourettes dancing and he didn’t disappoint. However in a cunning twist in the tale it was Brian (sadly not wearing his Human Beatbox t-shirt but still looking fine) that used the corn on the cob shaker. A little while later Dave sang ‘Trampolines’ also from the Flock album and it made me wonder why he doesn’t do more lead singing. They also played ‘Some Surprise’ from the Cake Sale CD which was written by Paul. All the band members gave great performances and finished the set with ‘Flame’, the chorus of which was sung back to them by the majority of the audience as the band walked off the stage. The audience continued to sing the chorus in unison until the band came back on for an encore. I think this was a pretty cool part of the night and the band rewarded the crowd with an excellent encore. My only minor disappointment was that they didn’t play ‘Still Selling Shoes’. I can’t understand why this was never released as a single. Overall it was a stompingly good gig. Listening to BellX1 songs always puts a smile on my face and I get a kick out of the lyrics which is something I might have to blog about at a later date. My only concern now is how long I’m going to have to wait until the next BellX1 gig!