Voodoo Daddy’s in Norwich recently brought a line-up full of incredible bands to their stage. Before the Anglo-Maltese band Genn took to the stage, we had the pleasure of experiencing two local bands ‘Crying in Colour‘ and ‘Marla‘.
Crying in Colour immediately set the tone for the evening with a high-intensity alt rock set. Lead singer Cara Knox delivered powerful vocals throughout while her band carried the rhythm. They slowed down for a more shoegaze sound during ‘Ghost Girl‘ before immediately picking the pace back up with a heavier cover of Vance Joy’s ‘Riptide‘ which had everyone singing and dancing along. They wrapped up their set with the live debut of their latest single ‘Hits like this‘ before ending on a strong note with ‘The Puppet Show‘ of which I particularly enjoyed the angsty tone.
Next up was Marla‘s turn to show off their multi-instrumentalist talents. It was fascinating seeing how they built up and layered each song through the use of multiple synths and how their voices entwined so perfectly for choir vocals. Each member had their moment to shine while showing off their numerous musical talents by switching instruments while also blending their voices together in perfect harmony when needed. A few stand-out moments were breathtaking vocal solos from both the lead singer and guitarist as well as an acoustic guitar moment from the drummer.
Genn then took to the stage under a slew of cheers from the crowd and immediately grasped everyone’s attention with their infectious energy. Leona Farrugia enchanted the crowd with atmospheric vocal stacking accompanied by flowing arm movements to start their performance. Throughout their whole set, they made sure to involve the crowd as much as possible with their strong stage presence and crowd interaction while taking us on a musical journey. Their wide range of cultural influences was showcased throughout, forming a unique blend of post-punk/ psychedelic rock with hints of Maltese folk music.
Every member had a distinct musical component that stood out – Janelle Borg delivered poignant distorted guitar riffs as well as using a violin bow to create the most mesmerising sounds while Leanne Zammit held down the groovy bass lines and Sofia Rosa Cooper held the rhythm on drums while creating interesting dynamics. There were many moments during their set where I picked up on the individual instruments and thought that the different components shouldn’t be working together as well as they were but somehow, they melded them together in a fascinating way. Honestly incomparable to anything else I’ve heard before but so amazingly done.
While many of their songs contain large walls of sound and more stripped back vocals, ‘A reprise (That Girl)‘, ‘Days and Nights‘ and ‘The Merchant of‘ find Leona utilising her voice as another instrument to emphasise the sheer weight and emotion behind the socio-political lyrics.
Their charismatic air didn’t go unnoticed as they returned for an encore and ended the evening joined on stage by many longtime fans to enjoy their last moments dancing together.
You can still catch them playing Brighton and Southampton at the end of the month and I highly recommend going to see them! Info can be found here.