Black Tiles - Conroy’s Basement 7 Feb 2020
Black Tiles are an Aberdeen based 5 piece, to be honest I wasn’t overly familiar with them but had heard good things so decided to head along to check them out.
Their sound has been described as a sort of 80’s dark Indie circa The Cure albeit with a female vocal. They are also renowned for throwing in some dancy pop tunes so wasn’t entirely sure what the night would entail !
They kick off the set with In Forever, which is a lively number, building up from a bass intro, introducing roaring guitars and some neat drums and is a good opener as it already gets the feet tapping.
For Harm, the rhythm guitar is lost and we get to hear more of Tilly O’Connor’s vocal and shows a good range with an ethereal quality but picks up when needed to compete against the buzz of guitars.
Sticky is next and starts of with a gentler sound to it gradually building up to a more rock finish.
The next song Lush is a more melodic number and again O’Connor’s vocals shine and this my favourite tune of the evening so far.
We are then surprised by a very neat cover of the classic New Order track Blue Monday and that certainly gets the crowd dancing along. The next one Waiting is introduced as a “dancy number” and doesn’t disappoint, continuing the more poppy vibe.
Scum has an entirely different feel to it, as it kicks off with a heavy drum beat and is bordering on heavy rock as we even see a mosh pit breakout. The next Leave starts off on a quieter vein but again builds up and is more of the darker Indie tune that is more prominent in the set.
A heavy bass introduces Ur Head and is another rockier number which keeps the crowd nodding and foot stamping along to the noise.
Fresh has a more melancholy feel to it as the pace is slowed down again but delivers a good melody. Molly Marguerite is introduced as “A song about my sister” and has much more of a poppy feel to it and again allows O’Connor’s vocals to come to the fore again and is my favourite song of the night.
The final song of the night Dead Girls is a great way to end the night with a very punky feel to it, it resurrects the mosh pit and sends the crowd home happy.
Setlist
In Forever
Harm
Sticky
Lush
Blue Monday
Waiting
Scum
Leave
Ur Head
Fresh
Molly Marguerite
Dead Girls
Overall it was a good set and cemented some of the good things I had heard about the band, if I were to be critical it would be that on occasion the vocals were drowned out by the guitars, which is a real shame as O’Connor has a great voice and shone on the quieter numbers.
For a flavour of their sound check out the video below: