Boomslang, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 10/09/2026.

Kyle Welch – electric bass, Nat Evans – tenor sax & EWI, Nathan D. Thomas – keyboards, Dom Holyoake – drums

Kicking off MSH’s 2026-27 season, their fifth, was Boomslang, a young fusion quartet founded at Birmingham Conservatoire and led by bassist Kyle Welch.

MSH promoter Dave Fuller had been impressed by the band when he saw them at the Deadwax venue in Digbeth, Birmingham earlier in the year and was determined to invite them to The Marr’s Bar. For Midlands boy Welch, who had previously studied in Kidderminster, the prospect of appearing at such an iconic local venue represented a very exciting prospect.

During a video interview with Dave Fuller as part of MSH’s regular “Piece Talks” series Welch revealed that his primary musical influences were Weather Report, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea’s Elektric Band and John Scofield – pretty much all the usual suspects for a fusion musician.

However the members of Boomslang are young and their influences also number contemporary music genres such as break-core, jungle and drum and bass, with Welch also citing Squarepusher as a highly significant source of inspiration. Contemporary electronic music and video game soundtracks also inform their sound, which has been described as “fusion for the 21st century”.

The band’s name is variously inspired by the snake character in the Metal Gear Solid video game, the Brecker Brothers tune “Slang” and lyrics from a King Crimson song. I was surprised that Kyle didn’t also mention “Slang”, the title of the Jaco Pastorius solo bass feature on the Weather Report live double album “8.30”.

Boomslang are a band whose star seems to be on the rise following a recent appearance at the prestigious 606 Jazz Club in London.  Their UK tour in the spring of 2026, of which the Digbeth show formed a part, featured an impressive lengthy list of dates for such a young band. They even had tour T shirts manufactured for the occasion. Boomslang also have an album and single release in the pipeline with the album due to be released in 2027.

I recall seeing Welch, Evans and Holyoake perform, although not as members of the same group, at the 2025 Cheltenham jazz Festival as part of the annual Birmingham / Siena Jazz Exchange event at the Parabola Arts Centre. I’ve also seen Holyoake playing with a trio led by the Scottish born, Birmingham based pianist and composer Ben Shankland.

The Jazz Exchange groups and the Shankland trio are much more ‘straightahead’ than Boomslang, although Evans also leads his own quartet, which features a more conventional post bop jazz sound.

Boomslang are something else again, a group who have already established a strong visual image with the band members taking to the stage in white boiler suits. They are self confessed music and gaming nerds and the boiler suits just seemed to reinforce their ‘mad scientists’ image.

Despite the predictable fusion influence, plus Welch’s sporting of a “Heavy Weather” tattoo Boomslang sound very different to their acknowledged sources of inspiration. The absence of a guitarist is a significant factor here and Weather Report are thus the most obvious parallel, but Boomslang also bring a youthful, punk like energy to the music,  plus a raft of 21st century influences.

Boomslang kicked off the evening with a near half hour segue of tunes, all of them composed by leader Welch. The opening “Social Coma” was introduced by Holyoake at the drums and established the quartet’s hard driving sound with Holyoake’s dynamic drumming complemented by Welch’s funky but supple and mobile electric bass lines, played on a five string version of the instrument. Evans’ powerful, R & B style tenor sax soloing was underscored by Thomas’ keyboard washes, delivered via a combination of a Nord Stage 3 and a Roland D-50 synth.
The transition into “New Face Filters” saw Evans switching to an electronic wind instrument (or EWI) manufactured by the Akai company as he shared the soloing with Welch’s Jaco Pastorius style electric bass.
The EWI was also to feature on “Copper”, the final part of this opening sequence, with Evans soloing on the instrument fuelled by Holyoake’s dynamic drumming.

In addition to playing sax and EWI Evans was also credited with ‘tech’ as he shaped the band’s onstage sound via a range of various electronic devices. Meanwhile the ‘front of house’ sound was skilfully dealt with by MSH’s regular sound engineer, the estimable Willis.

Evans took up the compositional reins for “MGS”, presumably named for the aforementioned Metal Gear Solid action adventure video game. This saw him continuing on EWI, generating a flute like sound that was underpinned by Holyoake’s sturdy backbeat. Subsequent solos came from Thomas on keys, combining the electric piano sounds of the Nord with the synth timbres of the Roland, and from the composer on EWI. The piece concluded with an exciting and energetic EWI / drum battle.

Also by Evans “Nootropics and Speed” saw the composer reverting to the tenor for an unaccompanied saxophone intro. This piece featured a more orthodox jazz sound, but without sacrificing anything of Boomslang’s trademark energy and intensity. Solos came from Thomas, largely deploying an electric piano sound,  Welch on electric bass and Evans on tenor, with Holyoake rounding things off with a hard hitting drum feature.

A lengthy first set concluded with “Cloud 517”, written by Thomas. The keyboard player is a prolific composer who has already released the nonet album “For Mμ” and the EP “The Straight Edge” on Spotify. This piece saw Evans continuing on tenor and sharing the solos with the composer on keyboards, while Holyoake rounded off a typically energetic group performance with a dynamic drum feature.

In his “Piece Talks” interview Welch explained that the group’s material was 90% original but they did occasionally perform their own arrangements of jazz standards. “We try to ‘Boomslang-ify’ them and make them as wacky and outlandish as possible”, he told Dave Fuller.

A case in point was the band’s treatment of the Juan Tizol / Duke Ellington composition that opened the second half. I’ve always maintained that this tune is the most adaptable of all jazz compositions and over the years I’ve heard it performed in a myriad of ways, but somehow it always manages to hit the spot. Tonight was no exception and this dynamic fusion style version was no exception, ushered in by Holyoake at the drums and featuring the fiery soloing of Evans on tenor and Thomas at the keys.

Evans’ “Gatling” was introduced by the duo of the composer on EWI and Welch on liquidly melodic Jaco style electric bass. Evans later switched to tenor sax as the music began to gather momentum, delivering an expansive, towering solo above an odd meter bass and drum groove as Thomas adopted an electric piano sound. Was it just me or did anyone else detect a fleeting allusion to “The Look of Love” in there somewhere?

From the pen of Thomas “Inflation (Not The Economy)” maintained the quartet’s obsession with unusual time signatures and sounded decidedly “proggy” to me, something encouraged by Evans’ use of EWI. Welch took the first solo on electric bass but it was the extended feature from Evans on EWI that really captured the attention. The beginning of this, with the sounds of Thomas’  keyboard washes underpinning Evans’ flute like EWI, represented a rare moment of genuine repose before Evans began to explore the full range of his instrument’s capabilities. “He’s become a real wizard on the thing” Welch had told Fuller and one could only concur with this assessment. I’ve seen the EWI deployed before, but never as comprehensively as tonight. Previously I’ve seen bands use it on one or two numbers where it is often presented as a kind of ‘novelty’ instrument. Evans approached the instrument more seriously and probably played even more EWI than tenor, and it’s this willingness to experiment that makes Boomslang a band to watch out for. Evans certainly seems to be developing a unique voice on the instrument, and he’s also a very impressive saxophonist too.
Evans’ lengthy EWI explorations eventually led into “Options”, which featured a similarly expansive keyboard excursion from Thomas.

The sound of the EWI also featured on a barnstorming rendition of “Tomfoolery”, a Welch composition that has been released as a single. Thomas took the first solo at the keys as Evans switched to tenor to engage in a John Coltrane / Rashied Ali style sax and drum battle with Holyoake. Dubbed “The Powerhouse” by his bandleader Holyoake then went on to enjoy his own drum feature as Evans reverted to EWI before the close.

The Boomslang boys concluded a compelling second set with the fast moving complexities of “Who is Toby Carvery?”, the jokey title typical of the band’s sense of humour and probably coined when driving to a gig. This featured extended solos from Welch on electric bass and Evans on EWI, with the quartet’s energetic and dynamic performance going down a storm with the crowd.

The encore saw Evans reverting to tenor sax for his arrangement of the jazz standard “I’ll Never Be The Same”. This took inspiration from a version recorded by Frank Sinatra, but the tune was virtually unrecognisable once it had been given the Boomslang treatment, with Holyoake rounding things off at the drums.

Presented by Welch with youthful enthusiasm this was an exciting and energetic show that was generally well received by the Marr’s Bar audience. The members of Boomslang played with youthful brio and a high level of musical skill - these four young players are already genuine virtuosos on their respective instruments.

However it was a show that divided audience opinions. The band’s punk like energy and attitude, allied to their distinctive visual image was regarded as a successful, well conceived and executed, concept by some, but a bit of a gimmick by others. As ever I fall somewhere between these two extremes. Jazz isn’t ‘showbiz’, which is one of its strengths and attractions as far as I’m concerned, but nevertheless having a strong visual image, and one that is simple and cheap to realise, isn’t going to do Boomslang any harm at all.

The musical content also provoked similar polarities with some audience members absolutely loving the band, but others finding it all a bit too ‘show-offy’ and soulless. Again, I could see both points of view, it was all pretty relentless and a little more light and shade wouldn’t have gone amiss among all the technical virtuosity.

The extensive use of the EWI was also a source of irritation to some. I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of the instrument but I’ve never seen anybody else experiment with it to the extent that Evans did and I admire his spirit of adventure in doing so. Its use is a very distinctive component of the Boomslang sound and makes the band stand out from the crowd.

For me the positives outweighed the negatives and despite some valid reservations I very much enjoyed this show and will be interested to see what Boomslang do next and to hear the album when it appears next year. They have already created a distinctive and very individual group sound that transcends the sum of their influences,  a very laudable quality in such a young band.

My thanks to Dom Holyoake for speaking with me during the interval and Nat Evans after the show, each verifying details of the set list. Both of them were genuinely nice guys, so thank you lads.

On the evidence of tonight’s performance I’d also be interested in checking out some of the other projects with which the members of Boomslang are involved.

All in all a very successful start to MSH’s new season, which will also feature a number of other bands led by electric bass players. The Brazilian bassist, vocalist and composer Frederico Heliodoro is due to visit on September 17th 2026, one of only two UK dates on his European tour.
See http://www.musicspokenhere.club for details.