Route 86 @ Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield

Sometimes all you need on a cold, rainy Tuesday night in Sheffield is a bit of straightforward rock ’n’ roll.

Because not everything needs to be epoch-making. Or scene-starting. Or an adventurous exploration of the outer limits of musical creativity.

Sometimes all that’s required is four mates with guitars and drums, plugging in and playing songs about love and regret.

And that’s perfectly fine.

That’s not to suggest there isn’t anything worth getting excited about here. Route 86 are an increasingly polished indie rock outfit who, refreshingly, don’t lean quite so heavily on the ubiquitous Oasis influences as many of their contemporaries.

They’ve spent the last eighteen months slowly developing on the local circuit, and seem almost guaranteed to be playing somewhere across the North of England on any weekend you care to mention.

This doesn’t come without its pitfalls. They’ve played their fair share of one-man-and-his-dog audiences, they tell me afterwards. Those gigs where the bar staff outnumber the paying customers and the bloke in the corner seems more interested in the fruit machine than the band.

But those are the gigs where you learn your craft.

Where you discover how to hold a room that doesn’t particularly want to be held. Where you work out which songs connect, which ones don’t and how to keep going when the applause barely troubles the ambient noise.

Nobody becomes a great live band by playing exclusively to people who already love them.

And so we find Route 86 on a Tuesday night in Sheffield, confidently breezing through a familiar set in front of a respectable crowd considering the weather, the day of the week and the general state of everything.

“It’s all original songs tonight, so if you like new music you’ve come to the right place.”

The assembled Sheffielders seem warmly appreciative of the proposition.

And why wouldn’t they be?

There’s an easy confidence about Route 86 now. Nothing feels particularly forced. The songs are melodic, well constructed and delivered with the assurance of a band who have spent enough time together to know precisely where everyone else is going.

It’s the sort of music that belongs on a festival stage on a warm Saturday afternoon, with several thousand people clutching overpriced lager and discovering their new favourite band entirely by accident.

They’re not quite there yet.

But you can see the route.

There’s plenty of new material on show tonight, with Ten Bob Millionaire the pick of the bunch. An arch little character study of that particular local hero who thinks he’s considerably more important than he actually is.

Every town has one.

Sheffield probably has several.

It’s a welcome flash of personality, too. The kind of song that suggests Route 86 might have more to offer than the familiar romantic anxieties and guitar-driven anthems of their chosen genre.

For now, though, it’s the material from their debut EP that shines brightest.

These songs punch harder. They carry the cool swagger of a band who know exactly how good the tunes are and have played them often enough to let them do the talking.

Simmer Down builds towards a defiantly boisterous climax, all swelling chords and emotional pleading as the narrator implores the object of his affection not to judge their relationship by the misdemeanours of past suitors.

And, essentially, to calm down a bit.

Relationship counselling with a distortion pedal.

The One That Got Away closes the set, their most powerful paean to regret, missed opportunities and the eternal tyranny of the what if. The lyrics rise and fall against swirling drums and surging guitars, building into the sort of big, emotional climax that could eventually find itself echoing across a festival field.

It’s a fitting conclusion.

They finish.

Everyone’s happy.

And perhaps that’s enough.

Rock ’n’ roll has always needed bands who simply write good songs, get in a van and play them to whoever turns up. Bands who gradually get better through repetition, determination and the occasional miserable Tuesday night.

Route 86 are doing exactly that.

They’ve already done the hard part.

They’ve become a band worth watching.

Sometimes all you need is four lads playing rock ’n’ roll.

Route 86 are here for it.

Route 86 are regularly appearing on bills across the north of England. They released their debut EP The One That Got Away at the start of 2026 and are in the process of recording the follow up.