The Brays - Met Lounge - Friday February 20.

Infectious melodies, guys that can play, a singer you can hear.

A package that sums up The Brays nicely and one which delivered a tight
tuneful set to an impressively busy Met Lounge on Friday night.

Supporting signed band The Cribs (their warm up show before their NME Brats
tour) the five piece made up from Gavin Hyde (vocals) Martin Humphrey
(rhythm guitar and backing vocals) David Ogden (bass) Paul Didsbury (lead
guitar) Keith Ford (drums) and Mark Daniels on (keyboards) looked
experienced beyond their couple of gigs.

Nice touches obviously thought out before, such as going on to a drumbeat
meant no annoying noodling on guitars and stopped have they or haven't they
started puzzled looks round the audience.

More importantly the music itself was there.

They can obviously come up with a decent tune as you could see the looks on
faces in the crowd, 'these are better than I thought.'

Their set was also nicely balanced with different styles of songs but none
losing that ability to make you remember it and most importantly tap your
foot to it which was evident for their last song Healing Hands.

Yes is was simple, yes it is effective, it got people quickly into the
groove.

Criticism towards them on the night.

Well, I would like to have seen them 'perform' and transcend their tunes
across to the audience more making us feel every note, but I say that and
they're only a couple of gigs down the line, but judge it as I see.

Also, for their style of music, a few vocal harmonies wouldn't go a miss.

That said, having seen plenty of bands at this level I reckon these lot have
the right formula to go beyond their city boundaries.

It could be argued they go against what is making waves in the British music
scene right now.

But it isn't half nice to hear catchy songs again.

Bob Hart (Grantham Journal).