To launch their new album, Lights Out, Big Deal played live in the swaying hull of the Tamesis Dock on the banks of the Thames in London. It’s a pretty narrow venue, but the top level balcony means that there’s twice the stage space to watch the band, helping to make the gig feel pretty intimate.
Starting out with single, Chair, Big Deal came out of the blocks strong. Alice Costelloe’s voice is effortlessly flawless and the mix of her electric and Kacey’s acoustic guitar works well. It’s especially impressive as they have no percussion, so all of the sound and timing has to come from them. The tone of the guitars was set up perfectly, especially the distortion on Costelloe’s electric guitar (couldn’t see the pedal, but it sounded mean).
The first half of the set was class, but Visions, one of the best songs from the album, didn’t have enough drive to make it sound as good as it does on the record. However, the downer was that they had to head out straight after the gig, killing any option for an encore, which is a must for an album launch gig. To add insult to injury, the reason for the swift exit was to be on Nick “ball achingly nonsy” Grishaw’s show on Radio “wonky” 1. Fumin’!
Anyway, despite all of that, Big Deal showed a huge amount of potential live. Looking forward to hearing the follow up album to Lights Out already.
Big Deal live review: 3.5/5
