The Bravery

The Bravery. A name not heard from in a while. In fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was one of those short-lived “one hit wonder” bands that disappeared as fast as they emerged. However you would be wrong in that assumption. The Bravery have¬ been missing in action. But not for reasons you would expect.

Following the release of their self-titled debut in 2005, and a handful of singles, most notably ‘An Honest Mistake’, the American indie-rockers got into legal entanglements with their UK record label that prevented the band from releasing their subsequent two albums or even touring in the UK for years, until now. Whilst in their native America they have sustained much of their buzz. Foreign entanglements now disentangled the band have re-emerged on the music scene. But not exactly continuing where they left off. Back in the day they were popular rivals to the Killers (before they went huge). Their rivals have now gone to superstar status and the music scene has changed. The landscape is not what it was back in 2005. The absence of the Bravery has rendered them into obscurity. This was particularly noticeable at the gig. Of a 400 capacity venue, less than one hundred were present. There were only three “moshers” during the heavier songs, and two of them were large middle-aged men. Oh, how the Bravery have fallen!

However, despite the extremely small gathering that night, it would be hard to say that the band didn’t run with it and own the stage. Full of charisma, bravado, and crowd-pleasing quips, Sam Endicott and co made the set an entertaining one. Chatting with the crowd between songs, but never losing sight of the music. Kicking off with “Unconditional”, the band went through all the old tracks plus teasing the newer songs from their currently US-only albums, including “Believe” and ‘Slow Poison’, before ending off with ‘An Honest Mistake’ and ‘Fearless’. Lead singer, Endicott was particularly in his element, despite his absurdly skinny jeans he was all over the stage, throwing in a lot of heart into each of the songs. During some of the more notable songs he even got the crowd to join in. Although there weren’t many people there, there was enough noise to be made to mistake sixty or seventy people for four hundred.

The Bravery may have been gone a long time but their performance suggests they are willing to throw their chips in and gamble with the UK music scene again. Best of luck to them.