The Forum is packed for a band that might still exist beneath the radar of many Classic Rock readers. The Lemon Twigs are Brian and Michael D’Addario, multi-instrumentalist/vocalising siblings from Long Island, New York, whose debut album Do Hollywood is among the cult releases of 2016. Mike Portnoy was among those to fall under the duo’s spell, describing their DayGlo sound as “The Beatles-meetJellyfish-meet-Redd Kross-meet-Badfinger, [coming] straight out of a Wes Anderson film”.
Another impudently young pop-rock band, London’s Flyte, kick off tonight’s show in impressive fashion, despite favouring a more vocal-led approach. Could a power-pop renaissance be a possibility? Watch this space.
The headliners deliver what is, in sporting parlance, the proverbial game of two halves. Choirboy-voiced Brian fronts the show’s first half, before swapping mic and guitar for sticks with elder brother Michael, whose comedic Ministry Of Silly Walks-style high kicks are dangerous to those around him. The more ferocious approach of the younger D’Addario galvanises proceedings, and final song of the set proper, As Long As We’re Together, with its Bee Gees-on-crack harmonies, is a minor masterpiece. They sign off with an equally rowdy brand new composition called The Queen Of My School that suggests a second album will hasten the Lemon Twigs’ rise.
