It’s the first night of November. There’s a chill in the air and a line of people down Albany Road. The Entitled Sons, a literal band of brothers, are playing at The Globe.
The crowd is young, almost entirely women and girls, and it doesn’t take them long to fill into the room. Some bands need to beckon crowds closer to the stage, but these fans aren’t shy about getting right up close.
I, admittedly, come into the show slightly skeptical. It’s not the kind of music I usually listen to. To say my expectations were exceeded would be an understatement. The band takes the stage, and the reaction is immediate: screaming, cheering, and jumping – there’s a completely shameless enthusiasm from the audience. They have a timeless boyband-type appeal paired with classic rock-n-roll sensibilities. The playing is energetic but tight, loud and rowdy but held together with an impressive level of control. Lead vocalist Charlie Swift works the crowd with a dynamite stage presence and rip-roaring voice, dominating the stage through a killer set with crowd-pleasers like Lover Boy and So Real.
The real highlight of the night comes in the middle of the set, with the back-to-back performances of Rockstar and Epitaph. Rockstar is a high octane, adrenaline rush of a song, with a self-aware whininess and an Oasis-esque ambition — the kind of audacity that makes you really believe every word they’re singing. It’s performed with a raucous energy that takes the room to the sky, but it’s promptly brought back down to earth with a break to introduce Epitaph.
Epitaph (Not There), the band’s latest single, is a tribute to a friend of the bands who passed away. Swift explains this backstory on the stage before the performance begins: a beautiful, deeply affecting ballad. The simple chorus line of “I want to take your hand / but you’re not there” comes through raw and strong every time it’s sung, and for a few minutes there are no dry eyes in the room.
Across the show we’re treated to three new and unreleased songs. With any other band this could be a huge risk: the crowd may lose interest, and their attention may wean, but at this show the momentum doesn’t slow down even a little. With all three songs it seems as though the crowd is already singing along by the second chorus – if nothing else, The Entitled Sons know how to write a great hook.
Various classic rockstar antics happen throughout the show, including but not limited to throwing off shirts and climbing onto sound equipment – but they feel more genuine and spontaneous than they do forced or cliche. More than anything else, what struck me about seeing The Entitled Sons is how truly genuine they felt. Not a drop of cynicism or irony to be found on the stage. It’s beyond refreshing, and it makes everything they do simply work.
Give The Entitled Sons a listen, and please, if you can, catch them live.
Words by Rhia Davies
