Photo Credit: Caitlyn Ebsworthy
Straight off the back of filling the biggest rooms in Germany, we caught Giant Rooks in an intimate show at Thekla, Bristol for their penultimate UK tour date.
Opening the evening was Andrew Cushin from Newcastle who essences the sound of fellow North East performers such as Sam Fender and Maximo Park. The alt-rock sound was paired with ballad-esque song writing. We’d love to see him in the future with his full band as he was playing everything almost entirely acoustically and this meant the set was a bit slow at times and didn’t hype us up as much as we’d have liked for the genre and sound that was to follow. However, taking just his performance into account he delivered his songs with a lot of emotion, thanking the audience for being there and recounting little anecdotes between numbers. A highlight of his performance was 4.5% which was clearly deeply personal to him and seemed to resonate with the audience. As mentioned, we can’t wait to catch him at another gig soon with a full band so we can get the full experience, he’s certainly one to watch. 6/10
Thekla was originally built in Germany so it seemed like the perfect venue to house German stars boys, Giant Rooks on the Bristol date of their EU tour, especially when the band declared Bristol as their favourite city in the UK. Right from the get go we were treated to an arena sized show in a six-hundred cap house. The lighting design for such a tiny venue was really impressive, a cold silhouette of frontman Fred Rabe eclipsed the stage as the band came out to For You from their sophomore album How have you Been?. Rabe’s live vocals are extremely impressive, we were immediately flawed by how good he sounded, and throughout the show. This is one hell of a front man. As much as he and the band belong in massive venues, they did not treat the Thekla any differently to the huge houses they’ve become so accustom to playing.
The songs from this album which had already lured us, from the select few which were released late 2023, were no false decoy, the album itself is stunning and the record performed live was absolutely fantastic. Some highlights included Cold Wars, Pink Skies and Morning Blue. They undertook a whole new level when performed live, adding an additional depth to what was already a brilliantly complex sound sonically that Giant Rooks have developed on their second album.
This show almost felt like a secret set. Upon reflection, we feel smug to have been amongst those in the room, as if we’d uncovered something truly brilliant, like a treasure discovered and locked away inside the belly of the ship. 10/10
