GIG REVIEW: Skinny Lister, Newcastle University,
Friday 9 December 2022
Skinny Lister are one of those bands who make it nigh on impossible not to enjoy yourself, even if you don’t know any of their songs.
Formed in 2009 in London, they’ve toured with the likes of Frank Turner, Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly and built up a loyal following by bringing together folk, punk and indie influences.
They’ve proved over the course of five albums that they’re a good-time band, who can get any room moving.
So it proved on this freezing-cold Friday night in Newcastle, where they made a disappointingly small audience forget just how baltic it was outside.
I’ve seen them half a dozen times over the years, and always headed home with a big smile on my face after being thoroughly entertained. Tonight was no exception.
After a few years as a six-headed beast they’re back to being a five-piece after the departure of founder member Sam Brace, and they have a new drummer, Tim Hillden, who only joined in August.
Their sound certainly hasn’t suffered, and they were on crowd-pleasing form from the start, kicking off with Wanted and immediately upping the ante with George’s Glass and Tragedy In A Minor.
They released their fifth album, A Matter Of Life And Love, last year, but only one of its songs, the splendid stompalong sea shanty Damn The Amsterdam, makes the setlist tonight.
We do get a trio of new songs, Arm Wrestling In Dresden, Company At The Bar and Make It A Mantra, from the work in progress that is album number six.
They slip down nicely alongside established fan favourites like Rollin’ Over, John Kanaka, Geordie Lad and Trouble In Oxford Street.
There’s a real family feel to a Skinny Lister show, for as well as vocalists Lorna Thomas and Dan Heptinstall being a couple, her brother Max is on melodeon and mandolin.
They’re the two who do most to whip the crowd into a singing, dancing, moshing frenzy, though it’s a mystery how the whirling dervish Lorna doesn’t break her neck in her trademark high-heeled red T-bar shoes.
Tonight there’s an added bonus as their musician dad Party George joins them for a rendition of one of his own songs, William Harker, plus Forty Pound Wedding, which he wrote.
The latter is the first part of a three-song encore, which also includes Hamburg Drunk and Six Whiskies, and by the time we’re done the whole room has been transformed into a sweaty, grinning mess.
I’ve long thought that although they’re nominally a folk band, Skinny Lister would be a great addition to the bill at Rebellion Punk Festival in Blackpool, so was delighted to learn just this week that they’ll be appearing there for the first time in 2023. I think they’ll go down a storm.
