Nothing But Memories

After watching the band Nothing But Thieves support my favourite band back in 2013, I knew they were special. They delivered a beautiful set of songs from their lyrics to soaring vocals they were captivating from the get go. Since then they have toured around the world more than once and released two albums. All of this has been possible to their growing fan base and huge stadium filling songs. Unfortunately for me I have only been able to observe this growth and success from the outside by purchasing music and watching videos online. So when my new favourite band announced a USA tour, I had to jump at the chance to see them again, almost 4 years later! I booked a hotel and a 5 hour Megabus trip to the local show before organising interviews with the band and support acts. This was going to be Nothing But Memories, sorry couldn’t resist.  

As I set off on my musical journey to Minneapolis from Madison, we stopped in my in-laws town of Mauston. I was gutted I couldn’t get off the bus and check in with them but alas the journey continues. The journey itself was smooth and quiet, free wifi and a place to charge the phone. Once I got to the city I had an hour or so to take some quick sunset pictures before heading to the venue. The venue was ‘The Fine Line Music Cafe’ it seemed like a modern music venue, not much

character but very welcoming and laid out well. Before the first band hit the stage I managed to organise an interview with second support band ‘Missio’ from Austin, Texas. A great duo act who are into crafting huge pop songs, similar to ‘Imagine Dragons’ or a heavy ‘Foster The People’. However, unlike the huge scale of the songs, the two guys themselves are humble and polite. As we chilled out in the basement of the music cafe, we chatted about their rise to the stage, talking about their formation to first album “it has went from 0-60 really quick”, “there has been a real buzz about it and we can see it growing with more Loners” (‘Missio’ fans name). When ‘Missio’ played their set you could see the love and energy from the crowd, as a lot of people were singing along whether they liked it or not. Their live show is full of energy and magnitude; hopefully it won’t be too long until their touring on their own.

In a Tarantino flip, I finished my chat with ‘Missio’ and headed up to see UK support act, ‘Airways’. The band was on stage romanticising the American audience into their way for the English language, “init mate”. ‘Airways’ were also another band I interviewed that night and a refreshing change to talk with people from my motherland. Although their set was pretty placid, their sound is very visceral and natural, meaning no effects needed. To date they have crafted a handful of tracks that all pack a punch and feature on the debut EP, ‘Starting To Spin’. Lyrically they are beautifully written over a bed of gnarly rock and roll guitars; think of early ‘Arctic Monkeys’ and you won’t be far from who they are. As I descended to the basement with half of Airways we chatted about the tour, USA living and more tracks to come. “We hopefully have a new single coming out in the New Year, which we have been playing live on this USA tour. There are a lot of songs written but a lot to sort out before we can release it as a body of work”. And understandably so as I think albums can’t be just released by artists these days, they need to be teased and held back as they gather momentum from a massing fan base.

To move onto the main attraction for the night I headed down to side of stage to watch the Essex boys do it again, four years later. Not only did they deliver but surpass my expectations as they know all their instruments and responsibilities inside and out. They ploughed through a mixed set of 19 hits from the first and second album, no easy feat to sustain the energy for that long but they did it with hardly any sweat. Starting with, ‘I Am Not Made By Design’ and finishing off in style with their huge single ‘Amsterdam’. The band even added in a fan favourite to the Minneapolis set list, ‘Honey Whiskey’ after people chanting it for the second time in this venue. For the bands first encore, lead man Connor took centre stage on his own. He played a brilliant cover song before launching into ‘Hell Yeah’, demonstrating that he still knows his instrument despite focusing more on the lyrics and vocals these days. As the almost sold out crowd disappeared from the venue it was already clear this band are at the start of the rest of their career on the road around the world. With a show already confirmed at the bigger and legendary venue of, ‘First Avenue’.

As the rest of the band hung around to sign my stuff after the show and talk to fans, Connor took an early night to rest the now iconic vocal cords. As for the rest of my journey I managed to make it safely to my student house/hotel for the night. An old classic wooden house was cosy and warm for the price but did have thin walls and squeaky floor boards. Not the best when I jumped into bed to hear some girl moaning away like a porn film was being shot next door. Thankfully, I fell asleep quickly and before you know it, I was exiting, taking sunrise pictures and on the Megabus back to Madison. The journey was certainly an experience as the first and hopefully only road trip on my own in America.

As for a closing remark on the show, ‘Nothing But Thieves’ continue to grow as mature musicians. From their sophomore album (‘Broken Machine’) to live shows they have found their own niche and voice in the music world. The world stage is before them and they will continue to make it their conquering one venue at a time, so ‘U2 & Coldplay’ better be willing to share their arena tours in the not too distant future.