BROOKLYN roots and blues, punk and performance art. That’ll be Stroud on a Tuesday then.

Erm, were you there, did you see it?

On the evening of Tuesday 16th June an extraordinary gig took place in the Brunel Goods Shed, one of those gigs which leaves a room full of people with eyes shining and the largest of smiles.

The next day the internet was flooded with photos and videos from the evening before, a record of a night of music which is testament to the vibrant music scene which we are so lucky to enjoy in Stroud.

The evening started with one of Stroud’s own, a band which pride’s itself in being more than a little out of the ordinary. Square Bomb, who are Nick Buckle, Pavlos Kyriacou and Uta Baldauf, took to the stage mid-evening just as the room began to fill, to entertain the crowd with their particular brand of electro, dance, punk, pop, poetry and rock 'n' roll.

The trio offer up a magnetising performance; not only does Sq Bomb throw away the rule book, they have probably rewritten it, illustrated it and then set fire to it beforehand.

Pav, with his shock of silver/white hair lurks in the shadows, hunched over his guitar playing the chords he only learned in order to write and perform the songs.

Uta takes centre stage, a fascinator made from a record perched on her head reading some perfectly pitched lyrics from a clip board before dismissively discarding them on the floor beneath her feet.

Nick who many will recognise from his other band “Thee Ones’ underpins the expertly crafted drum loops with his raw bluesy guitar playing.

Tracks like “Scars” and “Equal Opportunity Friend” prompt the crowd to begin dancing. It’s unlike anything you will hear on the radio currently, raw, electric a feast for the eyes as well as your ears.

Then the headline act, Daddy Long Legs, a Brooklyn-based band whose fusion of punk, gospel and delay blues has been setting the country alight during their UK tour, takes to the stage.

Describing themselves as “dirty Brooklyn blues”, their stage presence is menacing; the venue takes a sharp intake of breath as lead singer Brian Hurd, places his harp in his mouth and begins to growl at the audience.

The crowd surges forward and by the time “Motorcycle Madness” kicks in, the band are preaching and the audience is ready to testify.

What follows is an hour of feral energy so contagious that as the band prepares to perform the last few numbers the audience has been whipped into a feral frenzy, eyes alive, feet dancing, the band has every person in that room ready to eat out of their hand.

So it’s no surprise that when Josh Styles, the band’s drummer enters the crowd, crawling on his hands and knees the whole venue joins him.

I look around the room and see Stroud prone on the floor hypnotised by the band.

Somehow these strangers from Brooklyn have tapped into some deep collective emotion and are playing the crowd with the same conviction that guitarist Murak Akturk cranks out his riffs.

And then too soon it’s over, encores are played, drinks are finished and a dazed audience stumbles back out into the cool air.

Maybe if we lived in a bustling city this would be common place, but Tuesday night in Stroud? Incredible.

You can find to more about the extraordinary Daddy Long Legs here: http://officialdaddylonglegs.com/wordpress/ Or support local legends Square Bomb by preordering their new album here: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/squarebomb By Sarah PW