Live Review: Big Special back in Brum for sold-out headline Institute gig

Following the duo’s acclaimed 2024 debut Postindustrial Hometown Blues, Big Special released National Average last year and are currently out on their biggest UK headline tour.

It’s a far cry from 2023 when I first stumbled across the band opening for Benefits on a weeknight in Milton Keynes as part of Independent Venue Week.

Having already spent a good chunk of time on the road last year playing their new material across Europe, singer Joe Hicklin and drummer Callum Moloney arrived in Birmingham on formidable form for the closest thing to a ‘hometown’ gig on this tour.

And, while their 16-song set was dominated by tracks from their debut, there was still a good chunk of their new record alongside a couple of new tunes.

Joining them were Ganns – who fans of Big Special will no doubt have already seen sharing a stage with them on many occasion - London’s Good Health Good Wealth and poet Bradley Taylor who performed between acts.

Good Health Good Wealth kicked off proceedings with their blend of alternative, guitar led electronica.

Between songs, frontman Bruce Breakey - sporting a left arm in a sling after dislocating a collar bone – found time to joke the title of their debut album, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Millionaires, hadn’t quite yet come to fruition.

However, the pair did a great job warming up the Birmingham crowd with standouts including Beautiful Bow and Full Circle.

Much like tonight’s headliners, Gans have been on their own impressive journey, winning over a steadily growing army of fans on the back of their debut album Good For The Soul.

Tonight, drummer Euan Woodman and guitarist Thomas Rhodes were augmented by third member Tommy Lawther on sax and flute duty, with the intensity not dropping from the second they came on stage. The highlight of their set being I Think I Like You.

The Institute’s main stage reflects it’s 1,500 capacity and for a duo, it could have proved a daunting task to command – however Big Special pulled it off with ease.

With Moloney’s kit perched on a riser, it was down to Hicklin to command the remaining space, which he did from the second Big Special arrived – striding around the stage, microphone lead curled up around his forearm and frequently leaning out towards the crowd.

Both albums by Big Special somewhat occupy different spaces, their latest is packed with more humour and fun than some of the darker moments of their debut and together complement the band’s soulful alternative post-punk sounds.

As a result, upbeat new tracks like God Save The Pony often sit alongside tracks like Desperate Breakfast.

Highlights of the band’s set included Black Dog / White Horse from their debut and new track Sluglife which saw Hicklin don a guitar.

The pair were on chatty form all night, with tales of being regulars at the Institute since their teenage years.

There’s a certain humour and rapport between the pair and the audience which feels a quintessential product of the West Midlands.

Be it when they jokingly asked if there’s any ‘6 Music Dads’ in the venue, going on to add the Institute smelled of ‘Craft ale and Steve Lamacq’ or when talking about capitalism on Shop Money.

A drum skin gets ‘frisbeed’ out to the balcony to a fundraising raffle winner before Big Special closed their set with “the new national anthem” S***house.

When they returned for an encore, the pair almost immediately descended among the crowd for a rousing version of Trees before Dig! brought the night to a close.

From here, Big Special are back in these parts to play at this year’s Moseley Folk & Arts Festival and you’re almost certain to see them on other stages this summer.

Big Special played:

Black Country Gothic

Hug A B*****d.

God Save The Pony.

Desperate Breakfast

This Here Ain't Water

Mongrel

Black Dog/White Horse

Sluglife

Dragged Up A Hill (And Thrown Down The Other Side)

Shop Music.

Professionals.

Yesboss.

S***house

Encore:

Trees

For The Birds

Dig!