The Blossoms are making an appearance in San Francisco at the Rickshaw Stop tonight, so be sure to check them out while they’re still playing the small club scene because it won’t be for very long. For San Francisco residents the wait has been long but tonight they’ll get a taste of a band that’s just completed their biggest ever UK tour which included sold out shows at London’s Scala and Manchester’s Albert Hall. They also performed live at Glastonbury, T in the Park, Reading and Leeds, Parklife, Kendal Calling, Festival No.6 and many more.
The band that’s been featured on the BBC Sound Poll as well as almost every other ‘Ones to Watch’ list, has been making a name for itself in the annals of great British Rock ’n’ Roll ever since. With their debut self-titled album hitting the #1 spot in the UK album charts, the band is setting their sights across the Atlantic and plan to make similar waves on North American shores this fall. They’ve already a stop in New York, tonight is San Francisco and then Los Angeles.
Blossoms have earned rave critical comparisons to everyone from Arctic Monkeys to Depeche, Modeto, The Doors, an eclectic mix of psychedelia, synth-pop and powerhouse indie. “Fundamentally we want to be a great pop band,” says front man Tom Ogden. “We’re influenced by the present as much as the past and we want to sound as modern as we can. We want to sound like a band who could only ever exist now, not then.”
Blossoms’ sound is a perfect balance between Josh Dewhurt’s crystalline guitar, Myles Kellock’s futuristic synths, Charlie Salt (bass) and Joe Donovan’s (drums) robust rhythm section and Ogden’s star-bound vocals, a rich Northern croon vibrating in its own slipstream between Richard Ashcroft and Alex Turner. “All the songs are very personal to me as they’re about my relationships,” says Ogden. “I tend to write my best lyrics when I’m miserable and heartbroken, but placing that over music that’s very melodic, very pop, but with our own strange twist.”
Music in SF will be there for the concert in San Francisco tonight, and will have a full review with photos tomorrow. Stay tuned …
