Friday 6th August: It's only my second ever trip to Stereo, so I think I can be forgiven for not realising that the music being played in the front bar wasn't the same as that being played in the performance area.
So it wasn't until Andy stuck his head round the door that we realised that tonight's gig had actually started and that Oli Stevens-Vallecillo, of heavy metal band Mantra, was on stage for an acoustic set, accompanied by a second guitarist (Cat, I think he introduced her as). The first song we heard sounded, musically, uncannily like Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead Or Alive but was, as far as I could tell, an original. Oli has a powerful, rumbling voice, which made whatever he sang very clear and he plays guitar with a mixture of intricacy and effects. Apparently he teaches guitar around York and it has to be said that his students are lucky to have such a clever player as their tutor. Adding a second guitar resulted in some lovely harmonies and Cat also provided a bit of extra vocals on a couple of songs. All the songs seemed to be originals, apart from a very nice cover of Man In The Mirror, which took away the pop trappings of the original and resulted in a much more interesting version. Thoroughly enjoyable, I could have listened to Oli all day.
I last saw rock band Raw Deal supporting The Tygers of Pan Tang at Fibbers in May and enjoyed their set. Tonight, they were joined by new bassist Michaela (whether that's permanent is unclear - both MySpace and Facebook still list the bass position as TBC), who looked naggingly familiar to me, but I can't remember or work out from where. Tonight, the whole band seemed to be more assured and confident, with guitarists Dan and Phil certainly living the rock and roll dream, both with their looks and antics on stage. Steph is a charismatic front-woman and, while her vocals are still sometimes drowned out by the music, has a fantastic voice. Jake on drums is good without being intrusive and, together with Michaela's bass, provided a nice background to the music. The only criticism I would have is that Michaela sometimes looked a little lost on stage and tended to fade into the background when Dan and Phil moved together into their rock stances. To her credit, she did seem to realise this towards the end of the set and started moving out of their shadows. I can't say that I recognised any of the songs from the previous time, but tonight's performance sounded, to me, an order of magnitude better than at Fibbers. I'm afraid I only caught two song titles, but they were both from very good songs - Stalker Song and Breakdown.
Right, cards on the table time... I can usually find something I like in a band's performance and there are very few bands that I definitely wouldn't see a second time. However...
Hailing from Nottingham Baby Godzilla, a four-piece (although with only three on show tonight) psycho-blues/post punk band, just aren't my thing. Displaying an almost total lack of subtlety, an over-reliance on feedback and a too showy performance the band mixed a fast and furious musical performance with screaming, unintelligible vocals to produce a head splitting noise. When they started their set, the place had emptied and, two songs in, I wondered whether everybody else already knew what was just dawning on me. However, word soon seemed to spread and the room started filling up again and everybody but me seemed to be enjoying the performance. Me, though, I like to at least have a chance of hearing the music and understanding the lyrics, not watching the drummer do a headstand over his drum kit or wander among the audience playing the cymbal until the stand falls apart. Sorry, but not for me.
98Pages, on the other hand, I do like. This is the third time I've seen them and, it has to be said, they are a superb live act, performing no-nonsense rock and roll in short, sharp and rhythmic songs. Tonight's (very short) set comprised of a lot of new or, at least, unfamiliar songs, with Goodbye JoJo being the only one that I recognised from before. There's very little speaking between songs as the boys let their music do the talking. A very polished performance and, hopefully, the new material means that a second album is in the offing.
Tuesday 10 August 2010
Sunday 8 August 2010
Bones, Smoking and Ashes in the Basement
Friday 30th July: Tonight it's a solo (get it? No? Bear with me, you will...) outing to the Basement to see a gig that came highly recommended by a certain D Lucas.
The evening opened with three songs from Peter Marshall & The Lomos, who were playing twenty-four gigs in twenty-four hours around York, raising money for SASH. Now, the endeavour itself is a brave enough thing to attempt but when you are basically gate-crashing a gig which is almost the complete opposite of your own style of music, it takes on a much higher degree of courage. However, the comedy stylings of this due managed to raise a few chuckles, an appreciative round of applause and, most importantly, a bit of cash. Well done, lads.
Next on stage was Joe Solo (now do you get it?), an untraditional folk singer from Scarborough (via somewhere a little further North-East, if his accent is anything to go by). An ex-punk, Joe was, according to his wife, destined to be a protest singer because he was always moaning. Strapping on or inserting (into his shoe...) various bits of percussion and adding a bit of harmonica imbues Joe with a bit of a one-man-band vibe and added a bit more interest to the man and guitar act. Coming across between songs as unassuming and slightly bewildered, Joe has a distinctive singing voice and the songs performed tonight were good enough for me to buy copies of the two CDs he had on sale. Highlight was a true modern folk song, written by Graham Moore, called Tom Paine's Bones, about this fellow.
The ever-reliable and always excellent GT Turbo was next up with a short set comprising of Leaving Victoria, Sweet Sorrow Surrender, Smoking In My Backyard, Dead Man's Suit and a new song (to me, anyway) Father Time, for which he was joined by Vin North on harmonica. I was going to say that some of my favourites were included but, being honest, I've yet to hear song from GT that I don't like. There's not too much I can add to what I've said about GT in the past - his songs show variety, are brilliantly written and instantly catchy. I urge you to at least give his album, The Ship That Sailed, a try.
Finally tonight's headline act, Otis Gibbs, took to the stage. He'd been wandering around the inevitably small crowd, shaking hands and taking requests during the evening. I can't possibly do justice to the man by trying to summarise the bio from his website so, if you are interested, click on the link above and head for the Press Pack. Looking like a cleaned up hobo (no offense, Otis) and sounding like a rougher, acoustic Springsteen, Otis treated us to a set of wonderful alternative country style songs, mixed with some comic asides about growing up in what he thought was an artist colony ("it turned out we were just hillbillies..."), playing at an anti-war rally and being born ("I came out bearded, tatooed and asking for my hat") . Songs included I Walked Out In The River, The Town That Killed Kennedy, Where Only The Grave Are Real and Kansas City, from his new album Joe Hill's Ashes (duly purchased and loving it...), as well as Small Town Saturday Night, the brilliant Caroline and One Day Our Whispers. The inevitable encore was performed unplugged and off stage, with Otis wandering around the audience while playing. Superb.
The evening opened with three songs from Peter Marshall & The Lomos, who were playing twenty-four gigs in twenty-four hours around York, raising money for SASH. Now, the endeavour itself is a brave enough thing to attempt but when you are basically gate-crashing a gig which is almost the complete opposite of your own style of music, it takes on a much higher degree of courage. However, the comedy stylings of this due managed to raise a few chuckles, an appreciative round of applause and, most importantly, a bit of cash. Well done, lads.
Next on stage was Joe Solo (now do you get it?), an untraditional folk singer from Scarborough (via somewhere a little further North-East, if his accent is anything to go by). An ex-punk, Joe was, according to his wife, destined to be a protest singer because he was always moaning. Strapping on or inserting (into his shoe...) various bits of percussion and adding a bit of harmonica imbues Joe with a bit of a one-man-band vibe and added a bit more interest to the man and guitar act. Coming across between songs as unassuming and slightly bewildered, Joe has a distinctive singing voice and the songs performed tonight were good enough for me to buy copies of the two CDs he had on sale. Highlight was a true modern folk song, written by Graham Moore, called Tom Paine's Bones, about this fellow.
The ever-reliable and always excellent GT Turbo was next up with a short set comprising of Leaving Victoria, Sweet Sorrow Surrender, Smoking In My Backyard, Dead Man's Suit and a new song (to me, anyway) Father Time, for which he was joined by Vin North on harmonica. I was going to say that some of my favourites were included but, being honest, I've yet to hear song from GT that I don't like. There's not too much I can add to what I've said about GT in the past - his songs show variety, are brilliantly written and instantly catchy. I urge you to at least give his album, The Ship That Sailed, a try.
Finally tonight's headline act, Otis Gibbs, took to the stage. He'd been wandering around the inevitably small crowd, shaking hands and taking requests during the evening. I can't possibly do justice to the man by trying to summarise the bio from his website so, if you are interested, click on the link above and head for the Press Pack. Looking like a cleaned up hobo (no offense, Otis) and sounding like a rougher, acoustic Springsteen, Otis treated us to a set of wonderful alternative country style songs, mixed with some comic asides about growing up in what he thought was an artist colony ("it turned out we were just hillbillies..."), playing at an anti-war rally and being born ("I came out bearded, tatooed and asking for my hat") . Songs included I Walked Out In The River, The Town That Killed Kennedy, Where Only The Grave Are Real and Kansas City, from his new album Joe Hill's Ashes (duly purchased and loving it...), as well as Small Town Saturday Night, the brilliant Caroline and One Day Our Whispers. The inevitable encore was performed unplugged and off stage, with Otis wandering around the audience while playing. Superb.
Sunday 1 August 2010
Rocking in the Grass
Wednesday 28th July: A few weeks ago a work mate came up to me and said something along the lines of, "There's a sh*t band playing York soon and I think you'll want to see them..." At the time, I wasn't sure whether that was a comment on my musical tastes, but it turns out that he meant that most other people thought they were sh*t and that he actually liked them. It also turns out that they were already on my radar from the What's On listings and so plans were hatched, tickets were purchased and tonight we find ourselves in a much fuller than usual Duchess. Either everybody was here for the support band or the main act weren't considered that bad after all...
Said support was The Jokers who hail from Liverpool. Although initially looking a bit like a gimmick act - vocalist Wane Parry stares and lurches around stage liked a stoned zombie, while bassist Joker Jet plays the entire set wearing a mask and guitarist Paul Hurst is a Rick Parfitt look-a-like with a small amount of makeup around one eye (I couldn't see whether Neil Wardleworth on drums was wearing makeup) - they ended up impressing both of us. Apart from a brief rendition of Helter Skelter all the songs played were their own. Most were of the classic rock/metal style but others had a hint of T-Rex style glam rock about them. In fact, The Jokers could be the missing link between glam and metal, which isn't to take anything away from them. If I had one complaint it would be the proverbial one - the sound mix wasn't up to the band's output, with the music drowning out much of the lyrics during the songs but, strangely, Parry's incessant attempts, between songs, to get the crowd going being slightly overwhelming. The Jokers may not have fulfilled their stated aim of creating the world's greatest rock and roll band, but they are a long way from being the worst support band I've ever seen.
It could probably be argued that Hayseed Dixie (it took me a while to realise the joke) are a gimmick band. Hailing from Deer Lick Holler, Appalachia (don't look for it on a map...) the band formed in 2001 and released their first album, A Hillbilly Tribute To AC/DC that year. Since then they have released a further seven albums, containing a mixture of their own songs and covers of rock classics (and the odd pop song) re-interpreted in a bluegrass style and henceforth known as Rockgrass. Proclaiming to sing songs about drinking, cheating, killing and hell - with an emphasis on murder and death (and with several threats that tonight's audience might not make it out alive) the band treated up to a nearly two hour set of musical greatness.
Mixed in with the likes of Centrefold, You Shook Me All Night Long, Black Dog, Walk This Way, Ace of Spades, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bad Moon Rising, Fat Bottom Girls and Highway to Hell, were songs about tolerance, alien probes (yes, that sort...) and corn liquer, usually introduced in Southern preacher style with an amusing observation or hilarious story (including the funniest Take That story, which actually started out as a tale of how much the band drinks, you are ever likely to hear) and much face pulling and wild-eyed staring. Funniest song by far was I'm Keeping Your Poop, although Alien Abduction Probe was a close second.
Unlike most covers bands, who just re-play the songs, the fact that Barley Scotch (vocals, guitar and fiddle), Reverend Don Wayne Remo (banjo, vocals), Deacon Dale Reno (mandolin, guitar, vocals) and the wonderfully bearded Jake "Bakesnake" Byers (bass, vocals) manage to so successfully reinvent the classics in such superb style shows what good musicians they are (kind of like Les Dawson on piano, without the bum notes). The fact that they drop in a song called The Merchandise Table Is Next To The Stage just before ending the set goes some way to show their mentality. That fact that I'm now kicking myself for not wandering over to see whether they had brought any CDs on tour shows how much I was entertained.
And what a way to finish the evening...an encore of Duelling Banjos, with banjo and guitar and including a brief foray into Freebird. Superb and very highly recommended for any fans of rock music. Even if they are a gimmick band, and I'm not convinced about that, Hayseed Dixie put the music back into fun. We cheered, we hollered, we Hell Yeah'd, we drank and we danced (in fact some people there even seemed to have started their own hoe down...) but, most of all, we had a good time.
Said support was The Jokers who hail from Liverpool. Although initially looking a bit like a gimmick act - vocalist Wane Parry stares and lurches around stage liked a stoned zombie, while bassist Joker Jet plays the entire set wearing a mask and guitarist Paul Hurst is a Rick Parfitt look-a-like with a small amount of makeup around one eye (I couldn't see whether Neil Wardleworth on drums was wearing makeup) - they ended up impressing both of us. Apart from a brief rendition of Helter Skelter all the songs played were their own. Most were of the classic rock/metal style but others had a hint of T-Rex style glam rock about them. In fact, The Jokers could be the missing link between glam and metal, which isn't to take anything away from them. If I had one complaint it would be the proverbial one - the sound mix wasn't up to the band's output, with the music drowning out much of the lyrics during the songs but, strangely, Parry's incessant attempts, between songs, to get the crowd going being slightly overwhelming. The Jokers may not have fulfilled their stated aim of creating the world's greatest rock and roll band, but they are a long way from being the worst support band I've ever seen.
It could probably be argued that Hayseed Dixie (it took me a while to realise the joke) are a gimmick band. Hailing from Deer Lick Holler, Appalachia (don't look for it on a map...) the band formed in 2001 and released their first album, A Hillbilly Tribute To AC/DC that year. Since then they have released a further seven albums, containing a mixture of their own songs and covers of rock classics (and the odd pop song) re-interpreted in a bluegrass style and henceforth known as Rockgrass. Proclaiming to sing songs about drinking, cheating, killing and hell - with an emphasis on murder and death (and with several threats that tonight's audience might not make it out alive) the band treated up to a nearly two hour set of musical greatness.
Mixed in with the likes of Centrefold, You Shook Me All Night Long, Black Dog, Walk This Way, Ace of Spades, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bad Moon Rising, Fat Bottom Girls and Highway to Hell, were songs about tolerance, alien probes (yes, that sort...) and corn liquer, usually introduced in Southern preacher style with an amusing observation or hilarious story (including the funniest Take That story, which actually started out as a tale of how much the band drinks, you are ever likely to hear) and much face pulling and wild-eyed staring. Funniest song by far was I'm Keeping Your Poop, although Alien Abduction Probe was a close second.
Unlike most covers bands, who just re-play the songs, the fact that Barley Scotch (vocals, guitar and fiddle), Reverend Don Wayne Remo (banjo, vocals), Deacon Dale Reno (mandolin, guitar, vocals) and the wonderfully bearded Jake "Bakesnake" Byers (bass, vocals) manage to so successfully reinvent the classics in such superb style shows what good musicians they are (kind of like Les Dawson on piano, without the bum notes). The fact that they drop in a song called The Merchandise Table Is Next To The Stage just before ending the set goes some way to show their mentality. That fact that I'm now kicking myself for not wandering over to see whether they had brought any CDs on tour shows how much I was entertained.
And what a way to finish the evening...an encore of Duelling Banjos, with banjo and guitar and including a brief foray into Freebird. Superb and very highly recommended for any fans of rock music. Even if they are a gimmick band, and I'm not convinced about that, Hayseed Dixie put the music back into fun. We cheered, we hollered, we Hell Yeah'd, we drank and we danced (in fact some people there even seemed to have started their own hoe down...) but, most of all, we had a good time.
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