TNB Serve Swansea A Slice Of American High
Published
A bitterly cold evening falls upon the seafront city of Swansea as the bands begin loading their equipment into ‘The Scene Club’. A terracotta blanket pinned to the ceiling with decorative Arabian lanterns, gave off the ambience of a shisha lounge rather than a music venue but nonetheless left a warm and inviting atmosphere.
The first and second acts to hit the stage were local entourages The Hip Fire and Bandicoot. The Hip Fire unfortunately extinguished their flame with a lack of originality followed by monotonous rhythms and slow drum-led endings, whereas the four pubescent musicians of Bandicoot really packed a punch. The indie/powerpop funk musicians emanated music that pricked up the ears of the remaining audience to take in the impressive guitar solos, slick singing and foot stomping beat.
Bristol pop-punk boppers The Action Plan! and Tennessee rockers Fast Astronaut were next to the stage, making it apparent from their first few notes that they were no strangers to the live music scene. Although confident in their element and refreshing from the previous artists, the generic nature of The Action Plan! may not have dampened the audience’s spirit but went to show the artists still have a way to go before they find their own sound. Fourth act Fast Astronaut however delivered some ambient heavy hitting rock with some serious head banging included. The band left the platform satisfied that they performed to the best of their ability (which would be a humble statement).
Gradually building to a crescendo through the nights acts, TNB adorn their instruments as they address the crowd with excitement and with a sincere note of gratitude that they were available to see them play. Gallantly embracing his acting background, Thomas Nicholas opens with a cover of James’s ‘Laid’, (often associated with his signature film series) which fills the venue with a rich and warming tone that puts a smile on every fans face.
Playing an interesting range of old material, newly anticipated work and a few very unique covers (including a mash up of AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’ and Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’) as well as holding what can easily be described as ‘the summer sound’, the journey-weathered good-time revellers leave a positive and lasting impression on the alternative attendees that will stay with them for a long time.
Shortly before their performance, I was able to catch up with Thomas Nicholas from TNB to discuss the new album released 25th May and the time spent so far in his return to the United Kingdom.
// <![CDATA[
(function() { var po = document.createElement("script"); po.type = "text/javascript"; po.async = true; po.src = "https://d15mj6e6qmt1na.cloudfront.net/cdn/embed.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();
// ]]>
The modest Thomas Nicholas also added in the interview how interesting it was writing the album with Caleb Turman (guitarist for ‘Forever the Sickest Kids’), after meeting him in the Bamboozle festival and even being offered to perform with the band in front of thousands of Jersey rock fans.
The future for TNB is basically to keep playing to a passionate audience and to reach the ears of even one person who might dig their music. That it doesn’t matter if he is playing to ten people or ten thousand, he will always try to make their experience as enjoyable as possible, knowing that even if one of his songs is played by a loyal fan in their car, that that is a huge success in his opinion.
To find out more about the Thomas Nicolas Band click here.
To visit the Thomas Nicolas Band's Facebook page click here.
Words, pictures & interview by Nathan Roach
