With an England game on the mood at Brum’s easy-going hipster hangout was pally and vibrant. Armed with Peroni we descended into the bowels of the bar for CIRCLES‘ sold out gig with The Assist and The Scribers.

Paul, Greg and Rich are the Midlands’ three-piece known as Circles. The band opened the night’s line-up to a packed-like-sardines room. It was cosy, intimate yet the achingly brash and gutsy riffs of ‘Gonna Get To You’ left no place for laid-back laziness.

The band’s signature dominating percussion and throbbing bass brought the noise of historical heavy industry into the present. It was exhausting just watching the drummer go hell for leather and gurn with an equal measure of concentration and determination. An image of Meg White on Speed came to mind.

You might think that vocals would play second fiddle to that energetic soundscape. But you would only be half right. It’s not often you see a lead singer maintain a position of stage right and allow the spotlight to focus on his band mates. Tonight that was what I saw. Instead of an aural battle, gentler vocals and complimenting harmonies reminiscent of early Beatles meshed spectacularly well and ‘Open Roads’ was a case in point.

Whether the band deliberately chose to use a low-fi approach to performing and recording or not. It works. Their set melded the raw simplicity of garage rock with angry Blues guitar, basslines to rival The Chemical Brothers, rock ‘n’ roll hooks and mental drums. They do their thing with a relaxed precision. The band seem unassuming bordering on shy but their sound is most definitely in-yer-face.