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06/09/2024

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Photo by: Marc Whiffen – TheIndieMasterplan.co.uk

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Gigs in Grimsby have never been the most desirable destination but once again, Docks Academy brought one of the UK’s finest talents to the Town. This time, it was the amazing Andrew Cushin who was being hosted, with support from The Matchbox.

I hadn’t heard of The Matchbox until a couple of days before this gig but what I heard, I really liked and being a big fan of the grassroots scene, I was eager to get there early to check these out. ‘Tenacity‘ is a huge tune, moody, like a darker Catfish and the Bottlemen and a tune they surely wish that they had in their arsenal. New tune ‘Sun’s Rising (Hide)‘ has been getting huge praise since it’s release with BBC Introducing being big fans of the new single. It was great to hear it ring around the old church. I’ll be keeping my eyes on these from now on.

Andrew Cushin has gone from strength to strength over the last few years, his gigs getting bigger, his fanbase growing at a huge rate too so this could be the last time we see him in a venue of this size, especially when he releases his follow up album to ‘Waiting For The Rain‘.

Photo by: Marc Whiffen – TheIndieMasterplan.co.uk

There are many sides to Andrew Cushin and he started the set with the laddish side of him. Coming out wearing shades and bursting into ‘Let Me Give It To You‘, instantly you could see he was up for this gig big time. Follwing with ‘Comedown‘, during both tunes he didn’t have a guitar and was prowling around the front of the stage stearing deep into the eyes of the front row.

The emotional side of Andrew Cushin is what drew most fans towards him in the first place, he has deep and sad stories but delivers them with an air of optimism. ‘Broken Love Song‘ was the first taster of this and the atmosphere of the venue changed instantly, it was more quiet with fans hanging on every word while having their arms around the person next to them. ‘It’s Coming Round Again‘ followed in similar fashion.

‘Just Like You’d Want Me To‘ was the most ‘poppy’ tune of the night, a pure feel good anthem, a lighters in the air moment… Well, I guess it’s more torch from a phone in the air moment these days.

Photo by: Marc Whiffen – TheIndieMasterplan.co.uk

‘You Don’t Belong‘ is one of Cushin’s most strutting tunes and this got the crowd bouncing along and created a bit of a pit. ‘Dream For A Moment‘ followed, this is my personal favourite tune, the chorus is an absolute monster of an anthem, just everything about it is everything I love about music, emotional, hopeful and feel good. When this is performed live it amplifies all of those feelings 100%.

In a world when every youngster wants to be a Liam Gallagher, Andrew Cushin went more down the lesser followed Noel road, I feel this is also what makes Cushin stand out more, for a youngster to have such mature sounding tunes is a breath of fresh air. Amazingly Noel recorded one of Cushin’s tunes and this is one of his most emotionally charged tracks too, ‘Where’s My Family Gone?‘, the structure and the feel is pure Noel and he must kick himself that this tune isn’t his. Cushin finished his first part of his set with this and to be fair, I’m sure he aswel as everybody else needed a break after that one, how he doesn’t burst into tears performing this tune is a miracle.

To start the encore it was the beautiful and tender ‘Memories‘, thank God for that break, these two in a row would have been difficult on the old heartstrings.

Finishing off with the more bouncy  ‘Wor Flags‘, this got everybody out of their trance and gave a chance for a last jump around, with the chorus of ‘La la-la la-la la La la-la la-la la
La la-la la-la‘, it brought everybody together to celebrate what was truely a rollarcoaster of a set.

With Docks Academy being in an old converted church, they should have had a collection box on the way out because Andrew Cushin just blew the roof clean off.

With the festival season now over and Andrew Cushin only having one more UK gig left before a little European tour, I’m excited to see what is to come on stage two of the Cushin journey.

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