Friday 24 September 2010

Scream And Panic

Saturday 18th September: These days, if there's a band that I like playing York it doesn't matter if any of the gang are going to see them. If I've got nothing else on, I'll go on my own. Tonight, it's the third visit to our city by Panic Room and nothing was going to stop me keeping my 100% attendance record.

First support came from Scream Arena, another band I'd seen before. Tonight they were a lot less flamboyantly dressed than last time and gave the impression that they weren't trying as hard to project an almost archetypal image of a rock band. Yes, vocalist Andy Paul still looks like a singing Slash, but those of the rest of the band who were, last time out, rather flamboyantly dressed had toned down their appearance this time. Musically, pounding drums and crashing chords were mixed with some intricate solos and sometimes ear-piercing vocals to produce some pretty good heavy metal, which I enjoyed more this time than I did last. Admittedly, the lyrics were hard to make out most of the time, but that's not unusual with live music. In this case, the vocals somehow seemed to be clearer when Paul was backed by other band members. The first time I reviewed the band, I wasn't that impressed. This time, I found myself liking them more. Maybe familiarity, in this case, breeds enjoyment. House of Pain remains the standout song, but the rest of the set wasn't half bad.

Chris Johnson has more than one link to Panic Room and associated acts so it was, perhaps, no great surprise to see him on stage tonight. A talented musician, song-writer and singer, past member of Mostly Autumn and current guiding force behind Parade, Chris generally performs solo with an acoustic, albeit effects-aided, guitar and tonight was no exception. He played songs from his solo career (Luckiest Man Alive), from Parade (the wonderful Dogs and Come Alive) and one he wrote with Mostly Autumn (Science And Machinery, which appeared on the special edition of the Heart Full Of Sky album - sadly not the version I own). All were played with energy, a clear voice and a seeming reluctance to make eye contact with the audience. Not that that matters - this was another good set from one of York's most multi-dimensional artistes.

Since the last time I saw Panic Room, they have had a slight line-up change. Bass-player Alun Vaughan has left the band to pursue other bass related activities and has been replaced by Yatim Halimi, and, it has to be said, I don't think I've ever seen any string member of the rhythm section enjoy himself as much as Yatim did tonight. Dancing, singing backing vocals and jumping around stage, all the time wearing an ear to ear grin, he was fantastic and much more "front of stage" than Alun ever was. That's not a criticism of Alun, just an indication of how different the two performers are.

This being the Satellite Tour, much of tonight's set-list came from the band's second album. But mixed in with the likes of Freedom To Breathe, Yasuni, Dark Star were a sample of songs from Visionary Position. Anne-Marie Helder performed Elektra City superbly, using hand gestures and subtle changes in head position to accentuate the "technological" side of the song, while Reborn and Apokalypstick were welcome returns. There was a small part of the set where the vocals seemed to go a little muddy and, indeed, Anne-Marie herself sounded just a little hoarse for a while in the middle. Given the amount of effort she puts into her vocals, however, that's perhaps no surprise. I have to say that The Fall was, for me, spoiled a little by the vocal effects used during it, but that was a minor blip.

Panic Room recently recorded a song for a CD to be given away with an issue of Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine. In celebration of the reunion of Emerson, Lake and Palmer at this year's High Voltage festival, a number of modern prog bands were asked to record cover versions of ELP songs and Panic Room chose Bitches Crystal. Sadly, legal matters mean that the CD has yet to see the light of day (and may never do so if I read a comment in the latest issue correctly) but the band have decided to add their song to the current set-list. I'm not at all familiar with the original, but tonight's version was brilliant. Like most PR songs, it was atmospheric and bordering on epic, with key parts for all the musicians and great vocals.

As usual, the musicianship was astonishing, with Paul Davies' guitar-playing being, at times, nothing short of astonishing. Unlike some prog rock bands, there's no over-reliance on keyboards - Jonathan's playing adds dimension to the songs without being intrusive - and Gavin's drums were, as ever superb. Yatim even managed to provide a small bass solo during the encore of Satellite, without resorting to playing funk as some bass players are wont to do. Panic Room are one of my favourite bands and seem to get better every time I see them.

Monday 20 September 2010

Late Night Socialising

Wednesday 15th September: Time for a midweek outing to Stereo to see a couple of favourites...

...but first, it's Marbled, who I last saw supporting Fish at The Duchess. I freely admitted that I wasn't taking much notice that evening and my over-riding memory was of an angry tone (I'm fairly sure it wasn't directed at those of us who were chatting at the back, but you never know) to both his lyrics and his guitar playing. So, I was quite surprised to find that tonight's act was primarily of a much softer nature with a mixture of styles, including some clever finger-picking. The vocals were much more subtle than I remembered, with only his final song being what I would describe as "shouty". Licking Electricity was somewhere in the middle of the two extremes and was my favourite song of the set. He also came out into the crowd and played The Beat Goes On, a fully acoustic pop song about how rubbish music was in the 60's, when people just went to gigs to scream at the band. A pleasant start to the evening, if not completely to my tastes.

Next up was Gary Stewart, the only act on tonight's bill that I hadn't seen before. Or had I? He did look slightly familiar. I'm sure it will come back to me... Gary started off with In The Pines, a nice little bit of delicate guitar backed by a singing voice which, at least partly due to his Scottish accent, sounded a bit more folky than most acts we see. Jekyll And Hyde was a harder, foot stomping song, while Maggie Oh was a much faster piece. Three songs and we already knew that he had variety. Joined by Rich Huxley for the third song, we also saw a bit of humour and banter coming out as well. Rich also played on Take Me Down but then left the stage for Behind The Door which was, in my opinion, too repetitive. All the songs so far had come from Gary's debut album, Boy Cries Wolf, which was released just this week. His final song, which doesn't appear on the album (and whose title I missed) featured some much more powerful guitar-playing and echo-enhanced vocals. It was also my favourite song from the set.

(Addendum - I bought Boy Cries Wolf on the night and am happy to say that, with the vocals on Behind The Door being shared with Ellen Smith, of Ellen And The Escapades, the repetitiveness is diminished and it's a much better song.)

GT Turbo, tonight in his Boss Caine persona (or is it always that way? He has so many names, I get confused.) is another favourite of mine. The only problem I have is that his songs are so good and so easily imprinted on my memory that it can feel as though you are hearing the same set over and over, even when he varies it. So, it was with some pleasure that I heard him play a completely new (to me) song, Father Time, last time I saw him. Tonight it got even better with two more new songs. At least one of these, Devils On Dean Street if I heard correctly, will be on his second album (due any time now and not soon enough). Only one song, the lovely Sweet Sorrow Surrender, came from the debut album, while Dead Man's Suit and "She Laughs At All My Jokes" (not the real title, but if you've heard it, you'll know the song) are two of his staples. For the final song, "a cautionary tale about cocaine", he was joined by Tim Fox on harmonica, providing a nice symmetry to the set as the opener, the aforementioned Father Time, featured Vin North on the same instrument. This was another brilliant, if short, set from York's very own Boss.

Finally, though, it was the band that we'd all come along to see (no offence to the others...). But who is the little guy taking up position on the drum stool? Well, it's none other than Gary Stewart. No wonder he looked familiar - it was just the lack of blue blazer and drumsticks and the addition of a guitar which had prevented us from recognising Hope & Social's drummer. That explains why Rich knew so many of his songs. Now, by this time, we had moved forward quite considerably and, in fact, made up part of the front row of the audience. Because of that, I didn't use my mobile to take any notes - partly because it would have looked a bit rude and partly because I didn't want Simon to see me and think I was texting somebody. So, titles of songs played tonight are sadly missing from this review. I can, however, remember that there was a good mix of songs from both albums (Architects Of This Church and April - both available at whatever price you want to pay from the above link) with, perhaps, more from the first album than last time we saw them.

It has to be said that, tonight, the band were on fire, playing louder, heavier and faster than I ever remember them doing in the past. Rich was practically dancing across his effects pedals, while Ed seemed to use every extremity (and more than one elbow) to play his keyboards, barely sitting in his seat. Banter was thrown around the stage like their lives depended on it with any slight mistake (and there were a few) picked up and mercilessly exploited and any chance for p*ss-taking taken without hesitation. Once again, with a small stage, large band (although the brass section was down to just two tonight), number of instruments and the amount of bouncing and spinning going on, it's somewhat amazing that nobody got injured and that nothing got broken, such was the enthusiasm on show tonight. Sadly, there were no kazoos (I'd lost mine but two of the gang had brought theirs along) but we did get the audience singalong during the usual acoustic version of Looking For Answers, which is always nice to both hear and be a part of. Hope & Social are never disappointing and tonight was easily the best gig of theirs that I've been to. A thoroughly entertaining evening which, thankfully, went on well beyond the advertised finish time.

Tuesday 14 September 2010

Playing In The Wood

Friday 10th September: I know, I know... It's been a while. Sadly, for the best part of a month my only exposure to live music was a Turkish trio who "serenaded" us during a meal while on holiday. I would have reviewed them, but I don't generally like writing bad reviews. (Although one band that I recently expressed some dislike for added the review to their Facebook page and took some degree of pleasure from what I had written when, perhaps, the most favourable part of the review was that I seemed to be the only person in the room not to like them. I guess any publicity is good publicity.) Anyway, normal service has now been resumed.

Adam Dawson must be doing something right. The new guitarist for Breathing Space - now fully integrated after appearing on stage at the Cambridge Rock Festival (which none of us attended) - not only managed to drag all four regulars away from our usual venues, so much so that one of us couldn't even find the place without help, to see him play tonight but an optional plan "B" of heading back to familiar haunts at the halfway stage was quickly abandoned.

Tonight he was playing the Royal Oak, in a much smaller room than the Roman Bath, where we first saw him. The smaller room meant a much more intimate gig, while the presence of a group of Germans, attired in some form of traditional dress and drinking from a four-pint glass boot (!), led to a much more fun and light-hearted evening. This despite one of our continental cousins seeming to be under the impression that he was at some sort of hoe-down (!!).

Adam himself played a similar set to last time, playing both six and twelve string guitars, mixing the modern with the not-so-modern and the familiar with one or two that I didn't recognise. He even turned his hand to a couple of requested songs that he wasn't overly familiar with himself, bravely playing along while everybody else in the room tried their best to remember the words to Bowie's Space Oddity and The Eagles' Hotel California, adding even more fun to the proceedings. He only admitted to playing one song of his own, current single Lazy Susan, but I have a feeling that the first song played was Omniscient Scarecrow from his 2003 album - I didn't recognise it as anybody else, but it did sound naggingly familiar and definitely had the word "scarecrow" in the lyrics...

At the end of the evening, which stretched well beyond the advertised 11pm finish, we chatted with Adam and he informed us that, although it may currently seem quiet on the Breathing Space front, they are rehearsing every week, as well as writing for the fourth album and that things are progressing nicely, albeit with a slightly different sound to past output. While there may not be a tour until into next year, the band have recently been booked for a CRS gig in Rotherham.

A (more or less) full set-list for tonight is:
The song that may, or may not, be Omniscient Scarecrow, Mumford and Sons (Little Lion Man), The Magic Numbers (Forever Lost), Lady Gaga (Poker Face), Kings of Leon (Use Somebody), Ralph McTell (Streets of London), unknown, Damien Rice (Cannonball), Snow Patrol (Chasing Cars), Turin Brakes, unknown, Eric Clapton (Tears in Heaven), Mumford and Sons, Newton Faulkner, Adam Dawson (Lazy Susan), Take That (Shine), Bob Dylan (Tambourine Man), Beach Boys (Sloop John B, I think...) David Bowie (Space Oddity), Pink Floyd (Wish You Were Here), The Eagles (Hotel California), The Beatles, The Dubliners (Wild Rover), The Kinks (Lola, Dedicated Follower of Fashion), Eric Clapton (Wonderful Tonight)