LIVE: Bear's Den at Rough Trade Nottingham (23/7/16)

Surprisingly, though I seem to get about quite a bit for gigs, I've only ever travelled to London from my home train station - until yesterday! I took a trip to Nottingham on the train to catch the lovely Bear's Den guys playing one of their album release shows at Rough Trade. The new record Red Earth & Pouring Rain was released on Friday, and with three instores, a New Slang show in Kingston, a slot on BBC Radio 6, a performance on the Radio 1 Live Lounge and appearing on Sunday Brunch this morning, the guys have been very busy promoting it. A few listens in, I'm totally blown away by how beautiful the record is and want everybody to hear it - particular highlights for me are Emeralds and Dew On The Vine, but as a whole album, there are no disappointing tracks in my opinion!

The set yesterday was opened with a few tracks from the new album, including the title track and the first single Auld Wives, easing the crowd in before playing some of the more known tracks from the first record, encouraging lots of audience participation and a very happy band! While Agape, Isaac and Above The Clouds of Pompeii got as big a response as you'd expect, for me, I was pretty excited to hear Magdalene, as the band missed it out from their Bushstock set last month and it's my favourite track from the debut album! For the final track, the crowd parted to make room for the band to come and play Gabriel, the latest single from the new record, unplugged - a pretty special moment! It was particularly lovely to meet Davie and Kev after the set and have a quick chat about the record, Bushstock and what I missed when I left their set at the festival during the encore to catch the train... 

Bear's Den tour the UK and Europe later in the year taking in Brighton, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Norwich, London and Bristol at the start of November. Tickets and more info on their site here.