Ali Horn finally got the chance to play his new album, Balcony Boys, to a real live audience. We were not going to pass on this one.

We’ll do what is supposed to be done on occasions such as this. We’ve had a copy of the rough edits of Balcony Boys for months. Ali was good enough to send them over in February. So, full disclosure, we were sold straight away.

And we have a copy of the finished album, too.

But all well and good, we need live music back in our lives. There have been a few gigs these past couple of weeks we could have chosen and, indeed we nearly did that last weekend, but a mini meltdown after a bad day at work made us pause and realise we’re not the same as we were 16 months ago.

We need to re-learn how we do life.

This was the perfect chance to re-pop our gig cherry. Close to home and out of town, it was difficult to think of a better choice, at least on paper.

Ali Horn finally getting the opportunity to do this to real people in real life was special.

Handyman’s was pretty full as Hushtones kicked off proceedings. We were kind of enjoying them a bit too much to make notes (yeah, our gig reviewing technique is a bit rusty), but their 70s disco groove was hitting the spot right where it should be.

The room was buzzing and the band was going down an absolute storm. There’s an album coming soon and title track Greetings From The Other Side is an absolute belter. It was good to be back right next to the speakers for this. Hardly hushed.

It’s been a while, that’s for sure. God we’ve missed it.

They finish off with recent single, Sinking, which was probably the best of the set. It was magical. Loud. Powerful and pretty much perfect.

It was good to be back at the front. It was good to see so many people. It was just good. It was good to get that buzz. We had forgotten about the buzz.

So, Ali.

There are two drum kits on stage. We’d assumed one one for the support and one for Ali. But then the band takes the stage and both drum kits are occupied. This is looking good before we even get going.

And of course the album songs. Ali’s Route 66 moment.

Kicking off with album opener, Sun It Rises, it was apparent from the off this was a special night and Ali was back where he belonged.

It wasn’t a complete run through of the new album. We got Dreamers and Modern Voodoo from the 2019 EP, It Wears Off, but an Ali Horn gig wouldn’t be the same without them.

He finished off with an old one – Days Like Today and it was just fucking awesome to be down the front. Glorious.

We took a picture of Ali’s set list. It ends with the one word DONE!

Sure enough, dude, you did it!

Just one thing, though. Liverpool – sort out the taxi situation. We ended up having to double up with some random people going in more or less the same direction as home for us. They didn’t kill us, though. So we’ll have that as a result.