Having been to a fair few gigs now, since the return of live music venues opening, I’ve got my routine down to a tee if it falls on a weekday evening. I try and take my lunch break at the end of the day so I can leave just that little bit earlier, grab something quick to eat and make my way to the venue. I’m one of those gig goers that likes to be there for doors, who also loves to see the support act. I got there with enough time to go to the bar, grab a drink and pick a good spot for the first part of the evening.

Dead Pony are the support act for this evening, I’d never heard of them before that day and thought I’d do some research, so I put them on shuffle on the way to The Joiners, to which they did not disappoint! Combining genres of post-punk & indie, they grabbed my interest straight away and was really looking forward to seeing them play live later on.

The lights dim down and the four-piece make their way through the crowd to the stage. Playing the following tracks; ‘Sharp Tongues’, ‘Sex Rich’, ‘Bullet Farm’, ‘Everything Is Easy’ (my personal favourite), ‘Speak Of The Devil’, ‘All Dressed Up’, a first listen to their new single coming out ‘Zero’ & their most recent single ‘23, Never Me’ which the singer informs us is about a toxic ex-best friend. She jumps off stage into the crowd to sing this one. They originate from Glasgow and were stuck in Surrey earlier on that day due to a bomb scare. The band assure us all was fine, and joke that it was just an old WWII bomb, which is very common down here.

The break in between bands has come and gone, with the lights dimmed again, only to look to my left and see indie/pop singer Lauran Hibberd and her band filter through the crowd to get to the stage. Taking to the stage Lauran informs the crowd “I’ve got the pukes”, “it was from a dodgy pizza last night, if I give the signal of my hand going up, I need you all to split this crowd in half so I don’t puke on you”. Aptly enough, they proceed to play “Bleurgh”, which the crowd go wild for. Following with other un-resistible tracks to sing to; Hoochie, Old Nudes, You Never Looked So Cool, Sugar Daddy, Bang Bang, & Call Shotgun.

Boy Bye is the third song in and before they start, Lauran tells the crowd of the most recent news that her band’s van had been broken into recently, with their equipment being stolen and how angry it made them.

Lauran asks the crowd to shove their middle fingers up to show their support. They play a new song throughout the evening, ‘Charlie’s Car’ which Lauran asks the crowd for help as they will need to scream for this one. Finishing the evening off with Shark Week, as slower song than the fast paste tunes we know and love.

I think I speak for everyone that was there that evening to say, what a brilliant gig. Lauran Hibberd & Dead Pony really know how to entertain a crowd!

Stand out songs for me were ‘Everything is Easy’ by Dead Pony and for Lauran it was ‘Old Nudes’.

Website: lauranhibberd.awesomedistro.com
Facebook: facebook.com/lauran.hibberd
Twitter: twitter.com/lauranhibberd
Instagram: instagram.com/lauranhibberd

Spotify: open.spotify.com/lauranhibberd
Apple Music: music.apple.com/lauran-hibberd

Photo: Jesse Lawrence