Words by Olly MacNamee / Pics by Eric Duvet
Currently on a whistle-stop tour of this scepter’d isle of ours, Birmingham’s Broken Witt Rebels are back on home turf tonight. And with a sell-out crowd of family, friends and new fans awaiting, they need to bring their ‘A’ game.
Playing a taught, thirty minute set and offering up tracks from their two EP’s (the recently released Georgia Pine and previous offering, Howlin’) alongside new songs, this quartet from Castle Vale did not disappoint.
First and foremost, I was amazed at the rich, smoky, sensual, “Down South” strains of frontman, Danny Core. Core offers a voice that sounds as though it’s done some living; a wise 
old singer-songwriter reincarnated into a young man from Brum. Maybe the stork got his Birmingham cities mixed up and somewhere in the Deep South of America there’s a guy with the Brummie brogue Core was supposed to have.
Opening up their set with the punchy, sexy ‘Low’, Core and company – childhood friend and bassist Luke Davis, guitarist James Tranter and drummer James Dudley – were clearly enjoying themselves. It was infectious, with many of the crowd singing along, bringing a sense of taciturn camaraderie between the rockers and the room.
Broken Witt Rebels‘ sound is a blues-infused, country-twanged brand of rock and roll, reminiscent of early Kings of Leon, before they lost their beards and their soulfulness. Whizzing through a set of ciggie-soaked vocals and Mississippi moonshine-marinated melodies, Broken Witt Rebels played tracks including ‘Getaway Man’, ‘Guns’ and the set’s closer ‘Shake Me Down’.
I was left with the feeling that this is a band on the up. And I suspect Broken Witt Rebels may not be returning to such small venues in the future, given how developed and ready for rock success they already are, and at such a tender age.
For more on Broken Witt Rebels, visit http://www.brokenwittrebels.com/
For more from The Sunflower Lounge, visit http://thesunflowerlounge.com/
