Caught Live: The Family Rain.

Fresh from supporting roles on the Jake Bugg and Miles Kane tours, not to mention the trip to Mallorca Rocks with Biffy Clyro, The Family Rain hit Reds Bar at Northumbria University on Friday night, and it was obvious these amazing opportunities had rubbed off well on the three brothers.  They oozed confidence during their performance and had a lot more stage presence and banter with the crowd than during their spring tour, and each track was delivered to an exceptionally high standard (which ironically can’t be said for artists a lot more popular).

For those of you unfamiliar with the band, The Family Rain are an indie rock group, reminiscent of The Black Keys and The Strokes, from Bath: twin brothers Tim and Will, and older brother Ollie. Having all been in independent fruitful projects, the brothers joined as a unit in 2011 and their success has snowballed from there, so much so the band practically had their pick of labels, including Lily Allen's In The Name Of.

The band opened their gig with much-loved track ‘Carnival’, and encouraged the large crowd to join in the performance and come alive, a welcome change from the support act! Aside from the crowd pleasers, The Family Rain played some never-heard-before tracks which were really interesting and brilliant rock-pop tunes. You know you’ve got a winner if the crowd are singing along to a song they’ve never heard before after a few minutes. These unknown tracks are all from the debut album, scheduled for release in February 2014. The reception they got in Reds Bar indicates that this is going to be one hell of a debut album.

The stand out track of the gig has to be ‘Pushing It’, which has been my favourite of the band since I first started listening to them at the beginning of the year. It has the kind of intro that inspires the inner rock god in you: cue lots of head nodding and arm raising as you sing along to the tantalising moody vocals. What I like most about this track is how it is almost completely reliant on guitar; the percussion is only really added to emphasise the dramatic vocal sections, the bass does everything else.

Despite the path their career has took them this year – rubbing shoulders with Miles Kane and Simon Neil over the summer – The Family Rain are still the same down-to-earth, friendly guys that I met during their spring tour. After their set, the band stopped back to sign merchandise and tickets, and were more than happy to get photos with everyone. It’s really refreshing to see a band so appreciative of their fans and easy to chat to. And with this winning formula, it’s difficult to not envisage a promising future for this talented bunch.