The Tosin Trio provided a killer half hour set in Evil Eye at Smithdown Road Festival. Go search out something new, it will reward you.

Smithdown Road Festival spans around the indie bars, clubs and coffee shops in south Liverpool. Many of these places are not traditional gig venues, but they find space in a corner somewhere. And, it’s all free.

It’s a social event as much as a music one, as people wander up and down the road, bar hopping and catching a bit of a band here and there, or simply gassing with mates over a pint and a fag.

That was pretty much our evening, but there was one band we were keen to catch in the form of The Tosin Trio, a band about whom we’d heard very, very good things.

And so, to the Evil Eye, Beer and Burrito Shack we headed. We saw familiar faces and new ones. It didn’t seem to matter much. Everyone was up for a chat and to have a gentle evening out.

In some senses, that may have been the best part of the night, but the music is really what we were here for. The Tosin Trio came out at full throttle, with their Hendrix style psych / blues thing. Maybe the refreshments helped, but we thought this was magnificent and demonstrates a point we have made time and time, over and over again. Sometimes the best gigs are the free ones, the ones squeezed into the corner of a tiny bar, the ones where you seek out something you haven’t seen before.

The bigger venues put on the names you already (mostly) know, but it’s the discovery of something new that is often the real pleasure.