Tin Soldiers at The Doghouse last Friday. Left to right: Matt Wood, Nick Bowen, John Le Sauvage and Jordan Smith. (Picture by Colin Leach, 0919977)

I popped into The Doghouse last Friday to catch Tin Soldiers, a band I had heard good reports about but had yet to see.

There was a fairly small but appreciative crowd gathered near the stage as the band tore through Green Day’s Basket Case.

It is a little over a year since their first live outing and the band has garnered a modest following.

Their song choices range from the standard cover band territory of Teenage Kicks, All Right Now, Sweet Home Alabama, to anthemic classics such as Chasing Cars, With or Without You plus a few surprises including Neil Young’s Hey Hey, My My and, bizarrely, The Mamas and Papas’ California Dreaming.

The four-piece gave me the impression of a band still finding their feet but enjoying the process. All the elements are there to make a cracking live act. Drummer Jordan Smith has a naturally rhythmical style while remaining solid, which helps to anchor the band’s sound. He’s not afraid to try out various pieces of percussion too and this worked well in an inspired version of Aha’s Take On Me. Matt Wood on lead guitar and John Le Sauvage on bass are pretty nifty round the fretboard when the need arises and singer/guitarist Nick Bowen cuts a fairly enigmatic figure in his regimental-style coat – which I’ve rarely seen him without (how do you dry clean one of those things?).

However, I doubt Friday was one of their better gigs, as early in the first set it was apparent that Nick’s voice was giving out. This didn’t bode well for the rest of the gig and it must have been with some relief that John took lead vocals on Rainy Days, one of five self-penned songs which the band would play on the Friday.

The band’s originals fit well alongside most of their covers and it was good to see a young band not just relying on playing other people’s songs but discovering the craft of songwriting.

I look forward to hearing more of their own songs.

The second set saw Nick battling through his vocal problems but had the crowd on his side all the way as the gig ended in an encore with Born To Be Wild.

Tin Soldiers are a band that can only get better the more they play and, judging by their enthusiastic following, they have many more crowd-pleasing gigs to come.