Review: Luxury Stranger – The Chameleon – 7 December 2013

When I first heard that Luxury Stranger were playing at The Chameleon my initial question was; where on earth is the Chameleon? A quick check on Google put it on Angel Row (17a to be exact), so, armed with this information, we set out an adventure and to see where the night would take us  After several trips up and down Angel Row, we finally found a discreet poster advertising the event, and pointing us down the alleyway on the side of the Bell Inn. A brief walk down the better-lit-than-your-average Nottingham alley left us bemused and lost yet again. Thankfully though our confused was resolved by one of the bar staff of the venue…who kindly greeted us. Success, we had found it.

The search was well worth the effort.  What we found was a warm and inviting place (helped by the staff). The venue is in a great location; central to town with a very laid back atmosphere, which turned out to be very handy as, although the doors were open at 8pm, the band did not come on till well after 9:30. A few drinks later the time arrived and the first floor chameleon bar emptied upstairs ready for the start of the show. This was my first time hearing Luxury Stranger and I had no preconceived ideas on what to expect. Thankfully, much like the venue, Luxury Stranger did not disappoint. The riffs were strong, lyrics were ever present and all delivered with vigour, as the pictures from the night show.  Being a smaller venue the sound can often suffer but that was not the case here it was excellent both in volume and clarity.

The set list was a full thirteen songs worth, giving a newbie’s like me a good introduction to the bands six year life. The band kicked off their set with Diver, and got progressively stronger as the evening went on. The audience appeared to be a mixture of dedicated fans, locals initially interested in this sound and even some international fans that had made more of a journey to see this gig. The audience soon loosened up and got involved with the show on great level, in part, helped by a good amount of banter from the band. Lead singer, Simon York often informed us that “I don’t do banter” leaving much of it to bassist Tim Bond, still both performances were informally entertaining. When they are next in town I will certainly make the effort to come along, even if mine journey is a much shorter distance than others.

Review by Chris Marsh