Last night we braved the rain showers, the freezing cold and the plain depressing evening and ambled along to Bristol’s Thekla to catch two bands that have been flying below a few radars of late.

First up was Brighton’s Peggy Sue. The indie folksy trio have just announced that their debut album will be out on Wichita in April, and so they’re hitting the road with Local Natives as a warm up to what looks set to be a year spent on the road. Having toured with Kate Nash, The Maccabees and Mumford and Sons, they knew how to command the stage and warmed up the limited Wednesday night crowd with some ease.

Sounding like Arcade Fire if they’d gained a few Fleet Foxes and spent a few weeks in the wild west of America with Gogol Bordello, they make a hell of a lot of noise for three people. With a wash board, accordion, and salvaged cymbals they started off slow with Long Division and Yo mama before notching it up a bit. Chat was kept short “due to a show on Monday where we just talked shit”, but they were none the worse off for it. Bluesy and lots of drums, they sound like so many bands you know (and love) and also something charmingly different. Definitely catch them if you can.

Then it was the turn of Los Angeles’ Local Natives. Not ones for having a massive hype machine behind them, they have built up a fanbase through relentless touring. They worked their way through the entirity of their debut long player, Gorilla Manor joking at the start of the encore “this is our last song – no, seriously, it’s the only song left that we know that we haven’t played!”.

So much of their set is full of anthemic, fists in the air sort of stuff, which we love here at theregoesthefear.com. Tighter than , you can tell that they know their songs inside out, stopping and re-starting songs in perfect unison. It’s almost like they’ve taken Fleet Foxes and injected them with a bit of Vampire Weekend or Two Door Cinema Club. They can also pull off the slower tracks (“Stranger things”, “Cubism”) with panache that doesn’t leave the crowd leaving for the loos or a fag break like Miike Snow’s set did.

Whilst both bands are no fresh faces to the touring circuit, both showed that they’re getting somewhere – it may not be an Arctic Monkeys rise to fame, but they’re definitely on the right tracks.

Enter our competition to catch Local Natives next week in Birmingham.

We’re a bit late to the Local Natives love-in train, however their debut album is definately worth a big listen. They’re on tour at the moment, and we’ve been given a pair of tickets to the guys’ Birmingham Academy 3 show next Wednesday (3rd March) for one lucky person to win.

All you need to do is give us your name and email address and we’ll enter you into a random prize draw to win the pair of tickets. If you also fancy joining the gigsandtours.com mailing list, you can also join it whilst entering the competition.

You’ll need to enter by 6pm on Sunday evening (28th February) in order for us to get in touch and sort out the names to go on the guestlist.

This competition has now closed, and the winner contacted shortly. Thanks to all who have entered.

This prize does not include travel or accomodation, and you enter on the understanding that if you win we will pass your details on to the promoters to organise your prize.

Watch the video for their new single, Airplanes, below.

Seems we’re a bit late onto the Local Natives love-in train (well, we did half heartedly introduce them a few months ago), but we got their new album earlier in the week, and honestly? It’s pretty darned amazing.

This is the video to the guys’ new single, which is good until 3 minutes in, when it goes from good to a properly brilliant climax.  Watch and enjoy below.

One of 2010’s brightest stars, Local Natives have announced a full UK tour for late February and early March next year.

Wednesday 24th February 2010 – Bristol Thekla
Thursday 25th February 2010 – Nottingham Rescue Rooms
Friday 26th February 2010 – Brighton Concorde 2
Sunday 28th February 2010 – Norwich Arts Centre
Tuesday 2nd March 2010 – London Heaven
Wednesday 3rd March 2010 – Birmingham O2 Academy 3
Thursday 4th March 2010 – Manchester Club Academy
Saturday 6th March 2010 – Newcastle O2 Academy 2

The lineup for the 2009 XFM Winter Wonderland in London has been announced.

Razorlight, The Temper Trap, The Big Pink, Bombay Bicycle Club, Local Natives (pictured right), Goldhawks and Cassidy will all play the gig, taking place at the O2 Academy in Brixton on Wednesday 16 December 2009 – just over a month away. With that many bands I doubt there will be much of the usual “standing around looking bored”, which is what we like to see.

Don’t be at all surprised if there are some top-secret “special guests” as well… we might well be wrong, but it’s always possible…

Many of the live sets will be broadcast on XFM.

Tickets are available to purchase for just £25 from the Xfm Xchange 084547 83936 or at See Tickets

Meanwhile the Manchester leg of the Christmas shows has sold out, featuring Delphic, Frank Turner, The Cribs and Echo & The Bunnymen.

Today, we’d like to introduce Local Natives

They Say:

They have the rhythmic lightness of Vampire Weekend, the hippie-barbershop harmonies of Fleet Foxes and the sense of the stately and dramatic, elegiac and epic that you get from the music of Arcade Fire. This means that sometimes you might consider Local Natives (is that a tautology or are they just pleased to see us?) to be a little pat, their songs almost too conveniently contemporary in the way that they tick all the boxes; or you might simply be grateful that you’re getting the best of three great bands in one neat – hairy, bearded – package.

- The Guardian

A rich torrent of sound, with its ridiculously lush and soulful harmonies, conjuring a rhythmic tapestry of rootsy folk, suddenly the thought of wintertime doesn’t seem that bad at all, with a Local Natives album to cuddle up to and keep you warm through those dark months.

- Press Release

We Say:
It’s rich, vibrant, lush and gorgeous stuff that has us sort of reminded of Band of Horses – the sort of stuff that doesn’t challenge you too much but at the same time isn’t another dull-as-dishwater David Gray album. Substance, memorability and quality – yum.

You Say:
Watch a video of them doing an acoustic version of “World News” below, catch them on the NME Radar Tour over the next three weeks, or pickup their single, ‘Camera Talk’, which is the first taster from their debut ‘Gorilla Manor’ released on 26th October. You really have no excuse not to be on the Local Natives train as it leaves the station!

The second NME Radar Tour of 2009 has been announced for September and October.

The 15 date UK tour sees Golden Silvers, Marina And The Diamonds, Yes Giantess and Local Natives all take to the road.

Tickets go on sale for all dates at 9am tomorrow morning (15th July) from the NME Website.

Saturday 26th September 2009 – Oxford O2 Academy
Sunday 27th September 2009 – Sheffield University Foundry
Monday 28th September 2009 – Manchester Academy 3
Wednesday 30th September 2009 – York The Duchess
Thursday 1st October 2009 – Glasgow Oran Mor
Saturday 3rd October 2009 – Newcastle Northumbria University
Sunday 4th October 2009 – Stoke Sugarmill
Monday 5th October 2009 – Liverpool University Stanley Theatre
Wednesday 7th October 2009 – Portsmouth Wedgwood Rooms
Thursday 8th October 2009 – Bristol Thekla
Friday 9th October 2009 – Coventry Warwick University
Saturday 10th October 2009 – Wolverhampton Civic Hall Bar
Monday 12th October 2009 – Norwich Waterfront
Tuesday 13th October 2009 – London Koko
Wednesday 14th October 2009 – Brighton Concorde 2