Los Neibourinos, 1st July 2022 at The Craft Inn, Foregate Street, Worcester
Neighbourhood duo, Running up that Hill with Bush before Stranger Things!
Los Neibourinos are duo Chewie and Griff, who demonstrate an intuition of musicians who can read each other as professionals with the ability to fluctuate and flit between mood making their delivery so engaging. With Chewie on Vocals and Griff on cajon, they play a set of originals and covers, cleverly arranged to appeal to new and returning audiences.
Opening with Neil Young’s Rocking in the Free World they set the stage and followed with a couple of originals; Fu Manchu is accessible and upbeat and even on first hearing offers catch lines to sing along to, while When it all comes down, drags heavily, weighting the steady beat with tortured lyrics, capturing its intended mood with sombre brilliance. This set is eclectic from the incredibly titled ‘I like Jesus (he smells of crisps) to their Joy Division cover of ‘Love will tear us Apart’ a timeless song whose lyrics adapt well to their interpretation.
For me, the real demonstration of their skill is that they not only recognised the genius of Kate Bush’s Running up that Hill some years ago, but that they are the only act to ever cover it in a way I not only accept but love. The sudden interest instigated by its use as Max’s favourite song in Stranger Things has now spiraled this cult 1985 song into global recognition, earning Kate Bush her first American number one, a record breaker at taking 36 years and 310 days to reach the top of the Billboard Global 200 Charts, and became the most-streamed song in the world in June this year.
I asked Chewie how this sudden interest in a song, which had been a niche and unique part of their repertoire might affect them, ‘I think it will really tell at Woo Fest….if there’s suddenly 15 different versions of it… I might pull it from that set and stick something else in!’.
Los Neibourinos are performers who are gathering a regular crowd, they are reliably entertaining and hit highs of synchronicity of mood, sound and lyric, to me the marker that sets some musicians above the rest. Definitely a band to take a chance on if you’ve never seen them before!
As a venue The Craft Inn, Worcester offers an intimate performance space, convenient to the station whilst the performance space is small, it’s window location attracts attention and lures the customers in. With the Taxi Rank outside customers were literally being dropped off and drawn inside. The sound was surprising good for the simple set up and staff and atmosphere was lively and friendly, a venue to return to and great location to meet up and enjoy the local music scene.
By: Juliet Mootz