大象传媒

The Greeters are a four piece based in Belfast who claim to be the children of Julie Andrews and James Brown. They consist of a lead singer from London, an American drummer and two local lads on guitar and bass. Georgia Simpson provides strong vocals over funky bass lines courtesy of Conor Scullion, guitar riffs from Scott Jamison and excellent drumming from Kacey Peters, who also put in an impressive performance with the support act, the Shameless Hussies. Georgia also produces a veritable plethora of talents on saxophone, clarinet, castanets and other percussion instruments I won't even begin to try and identify!

Highlights of the night include Funky Duck, reminiscent of some of the best 70s cop show theme tunes, It's Not Me, a good dose of light summery frothiness with some cuddly toys thrown in at the end for good measure. 听The best tunes for me had to be the anthem for bunny boilers everywhere Never Alone and the very catchy Biscuit with the lads on vocal over an upbeat sax and funky vibes. Funked up cover versions of Walk on By and Downtown rounded up the set.

The band has quite a wide scope when it comes to their sound. It goes from strong riffs on sax and bass to a latino influence with the castanets in Real World, to rocky guitar rifts, and on to mellow pop reminiscent of the Wannadies or the Cardigans.

At first I was a bit worried given their self-penned description on their myspace page, as I'm always a bit apprehensive of bands that lay any claim to the funk but I was pleasantly surprised and did honestly enjoy the gig. The Greeters definitely do put the fun into funk and although it is the lighter side of funk for the most part it was definitely a refreshing dose of summery quirkiness on an otherwise chilly January night. 听

Chrissie McGlinchey