There's a lot of great stuff coming out of Sheffield at the moment but, contrary to popular belief, it doesn't all sound like a brawl at 11 o'clock on Friday night outside a kebab shop. Tiny Dancers, for instance, soundtrack those sun-kissed weekday afternoons lazing on a beach in Los Angeles, the kind that are a world away from where we find ourselves on this dreary Sunday evening.
A small, plush bar in the centre of Sheffield is the setting for a thrilling half-hour set, delivered just hours before the band head off to support labelmate Richard Ashcroft on his latest tour. Signed by the same man who convinced a little band called Radiohead to sign on the dotted line for Parlophone many moons ago, Tiny Dancers play with the kind of pedigree that suggests similarly auspicious things might lie ahead for them.
Although they've little in common musically with Yorke's troupe, their maturity as a live act easily sets them apart from most of their South Yorkshire peers. Bands without a single release to their name shouldn't pull off glorious, pitch-perfect three-part harmonies like this, or succeed in convincing everybody in the room that their country inflected alt-pop is already the real deal, despite their relative youth. Tight doesn't even begin to cover it.
David Kay possesses a voice you'd expect from a singer twice his age, the bass player's hands dart around the fretboard with frenzied aplomb and, just in case you get bored, the guitar player cranks out all manner of intriguing noises to layer on top of it all. The Band fronted by Neil Young is how tabloids might describe it, but all you really need to know is that it sounds sublime; tailor-made for a sweaty little blues club in New Orleans, without a greasy donor in sight.
As they end with 'I Will Wait For You', probably their best tune, I'm left thinking that I might not be able to reciprocate the sentiment for much longer. Once Tiny Dancers arrive on stereos nationwide, the country's airwaves will be all the brighter for it.
Photos courtesy of Gary Wolstenholme
