INI LOWE

Plus support from Marcus Man and Apollo Bleu live at The Finsbury London – Saturday 28th October

The show opened up with Marcus Man who is quite literally man and his guitar , seemingly young in years but has real mature song writing ability. He sings with passion and a real generosity to the ears, an effortless voice dipping into Ed Sheeran-like spoken words and back out into indie harmonies. Considering he was the opening act he gave the crowd a real vocal treat and didn’t once waiver in his performance. His voice outshines his guitar on every note. I would like to see him with a backing band, it may add that extra layer. I’d love to see another side to his abilities. He certainly has a promising future ahead of him.

Apollo Bleu

After a sweet acoustic set from Marcus Man, Apollo Bleu brought the contrast and the bass. Their three and a half hour journey to London didn’t hinder their energy on stage.

The female bassist blew the roof off: bone shaking bass literally filled the room, lined with the gravelly, dark vocals from the front man. This was heavy and grungy, very apt for an early autumn evening. Apollo Bleu played a set of entirely new, unreleased songs, proving they’ve got some balls about them and it paid off as they got the desired reaction from the crowed.! The grand finale saw the drummer steal the show with a never ending drum solo; this is a drummer with stamina, who doesn’t want to be unseen at the back of the stage. He wants to be seen and heard.

If you like deep dark heavy sounds this is one for you.

INI LOWE

It’s almost Halloween and Ini Lowe entered the smoke filled darkness of the Finsbury stage, bursting into a crescendo of light. The first thing to hit me was the horde of dancing fans directly in front of him. He started his set with ‘Hate Me’ a punk fuelled tune. He really commanded the stage and the backing band was tight and well-polished. From then on you could see his time in Spain really influenced his performance; it was like a Spanish tapas of music, a varied mix of sounds from melodic vocals, indie rock, to poetically sung stories and lots of well-polished guitar solos.

The third song in and I’m already planning on listening to Ini Lowe again on my drive home. I can imagine a lot of Ini’s songs being written on the beach side, in deep thought. Ini’s songs seem to come from genuine situations and he does well to let you into his world. Ini is definitely one to check out, theres a song for everyone and I can see this self man musician doing big things in 2024.

I was able catch up with Ini Lowe and the boys before they tucked into their much needed pizza after a long stint on the road for their southeastern ‘Vows’ tour: the grand finale being tonight at the Finsbury.

What was the last gig you played?

The Lighthouse in Deal for our Vows tour and prior to that the Albion Rooms in Margate and the Oval Band Stand opposite.