Mallory Knox Rocks The Lemon Grove

The arrival of Mallory Knox to the Lemon Grove this October provided me with the chance to have my first sober night out at the hallowed venue and it didn’t disappoint.

After a curious and nervous hour wait wondering why myself and other guests had been placed on the Wolverhampton guest list I finally made it into the venue to witness the end of support act, Set It Off. Although they provided much energy, enthusiasm and a few nice riffs there was, as is often the case, a feeling of impatience before the main act. After a brief pause the lights dimmed, silence fell and Mallory Knox exploded onto the stage.

The Cambridge based band proceeded to play a variety of hits from both first album Signals and latest release, Asymmetry. Considering frontman Mikey Chapman quickly apologised for being full of cold and even gave a shout out to Lemsip part-way through (met with rapturous cheers) the band to me did not seem lacking in energy, which excites me as to how good they could be.

High energy bangers such as Wake Up, Ghost In The Mirror, Beggars and Getaway were met with a huge noise from the crowd which perhaps negated any slight lack of Mikey’s voice. The five piece also found the time for a few softer tracks such as Heart And Desire, Glimmer and She Took Him to the Lake – a seven minute epic which starts with Mikey’s lonely voice accompanied by a clean guitar before traversing its way to their full blown rock mode. It is through songs like these that you get an idea of how good this band are live. The sound was extremely tight. No wrong notes. A good balance between the four instruments and Mikey’s vocals. I was genuinely impressed by the quality of musicianship shown on the stage and it is no wonder they are hotly tipped to be main-stayers in the rock genre for a time to come.

I also fell hook, line and sinker for the ploy of leaving maybe their biggest hit, Lighthouse, until the very end of the encore. I must have spent the last half of the show waiting for that song to appear but it was not until Chapman asked the crowd to raise their lighters and phone lights at the end that my wish was finally granted. And what a way it was to end it. The noise made by the Lemmy crowd was unbelievable considering the size of the venue and the band finally finished after an extended bridge and final chorus. An obligatory crowd selfie later and the group disappeared off backstage.

For someone who is more a casual listener than an avid fan this gig was hugely enjoyable. The sound of the band was top notch, the songs chosen allowed a huge amount of audience participation and if they keep producing music and performances such as this they won’t be playing in such intimate venues for long.