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On the second date of their latest UK tour, Snakecharmer played the intimate venue of Bingley Little Theater. The venue may have been small but the band played like they were in an arena!
Opening the show tonight was Rebecca Downes. Here is a woman with a powerful voice and a blues-rock sound. With powerful guitars and a keyboard solo, these guys were clearly pros. Playing tracks off her latest album ‘Believe’ Downes gave it her all tonight. Powering through songs such as ‘Sailing in a Pool of Tears’ and ‘Fever in the Night’ words cannot do justice to how captivating her voice is. Showing off her diverse range with ‘Night Train’ and giving us an exceptional cover of ‘Piece of my Heart’ she is definitely worth checking out.
But we are here for headliners Snakecharmer and did they put on a show for us tonight. From start to end they played with energy and were completely in synch giving the crowd that clean prog-rock sound they came here to hear.
Kicking straight in with ‘Follow me Under’ the band took complete control over the stage. As Chris Ousey commands your attention he is captivating to watch as he moves around the stage. Flanked on either side by Laurie Wisefield and Simon McBride on guitars, the three men were fully immersed in the music, bouncing off each others energy.
Tearing through tracks such as ‘Nothing to Lose’, ‘Accident Prone’ and ‘Hell of a Way to Live’ these guys were completely on point. With Adam Wakeman swivelling between his keyboards and showing us that they are still cool and Neil Murray‘s ever familiar presence playing bass opposite him the band was completely cohesive.
Ousey even tried some crowd interaction with the Yorkshire men and women here tonight. Although it took a few attempts to get them going (and a few more pints) the crowd eventually joined in.
Snakecharmer even brought out a classic Whitesnake song with ‘Crying in the Rain’ much to the delight of the audience. This was mixed in with tracks from both their older albums plus tracks from their latest release ‘Second Skin’.
At the end of the night, the audience was treated to another Whitesnake classic with ‘Here I Go Again’. Now the audience was fully engaged with the band singing along to every word. Ousey even stopped singing and just let the audience take over and boy did they. Every voice was alive in this small theatre tonight.
After this fantastic moment, Snakecharmer came back for their encore joking with the crowd that they had just gone to grab a beer. With song requests being shouted out the band kicked into ‘Dress It Up’ and brought the house down. People were up on their feet enjoying that final moment shared with the band. It was the perfect way to end the night and the whole band appeared to have enjoyed the show just as much as we had.
If you haven’t booked your tickets yet I’d highly recommend you try to catch these guys on the rest of this UK tour. It certainly isn’t a night to miss.
We give it a 5/5
Words: Emmie Ellis
Photos: Mark Ellis
