Thursday 27 June 2013

Mostly Autumn–The Duchess, 22/06/13

Photos included in this posting were taken by Marc McGarraghy, whose work can be found on Facebook or the Yellow Mustang website. Thanks, as always, go to him for allowing me to use them.
It’s probably no coincidence that Mostly Autumn’s Bryan Josh and Olivia Sparnenn chose the Summer Solstice as the date for their wedding. After all, with it falling on a Friday this year, it gives them the whole weekend to spend time together and recover from the big day, right? Wrong. Instead they chose to spend the Saturday evening, with the rest of the band, performing a celebration concert for their fans, friends and family.
As The Duchess filled up with familiar faces The Judge took to the microphone to introduce the newly-weds, who came on stage to generous applause and cheers, Bryan, long hair tied back and beard neatly trimmed, in a long-tailed jacket and Olivia looking stunning in her wedding dress. “She really hasn’t thought it all through, has she?” quips Bryan at one point, to the amusement of the crowd.
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Bryan Josh – Already looking contented with married life
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Launching straight into the set, the band started with Winter Mountain before moving on to Never The Rainbow, Olivia coping well with a boots-and-dress combination that wasn’t, presumable, designed with moving backwards and forwards to and from a microphone in mind. Slowing it down, and giving Bryan a bit of a breather, they moved onto Unquiet Tears, a piano-driven track from the Ghost Moon Orchestra album, which really showcases Olivia’s vocals. After the criticisms of the sound here last weekend, it’s near-perfect tonight. Where I’m standing every instrument can be heard in the mix and the backing vocals from Anne-Marie Helder – playing “all sorts of things” for what is, presumably, a final time with the band – are clearer than I’ve ever heard them. Simple Ways gives way to Changing Fast, during which the lyric “lucky man” sees Bryan throw a knowing glance in Olivia’s direction. The ever-lovely crowd pleaser Evergreen is followed by a departure from the Mostly Autumn back catalogue as Olivia is joined by Iain Jennings - who sneakily adds a few notes from Here Comes The Bride into his introduction – on keyboards and Anne-Marie on flute and backing vocals for Rain Song, more familiar to me as a Breathing Space song than from when Olivia and Chris Johnson performed it when supporting Mostly Autumn. Slow Down, from Bryan’s solo album Through These Eyes follows, with Olivia’s haunting vocals at the end sounding superb. In fact, with Deep In Borrowdale up next, her vocals seem to be getting stronger all the time.
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The newly-crowned Mrs Olivia Sparnenn-Josh
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Drops Of The Sun gives another example of how good the sound can be, with Alex Cromarty’s pounding drum opening seeming to reverberate around the venue. After Nowhere To Hide, Bryan uses an e-bow for the opening to Wild Eyed Skies, producing a lovely guitar sound over a huge bass rumble before Iain’s piano and Olivia’s vocals come in. Passengers, another crowd-pleaser, is followed by The Dark Before The Dawn, during which Anne-Marie’s flute floats gracefully through the rockier song. Olivia asks whether we are all having a good evening - and the resulting cheer seems unanimous – before dedicating her tour de force, Questioning Eyes (the final of which sees Alex going wild on the drums), to her Mum and late Dad, who had made the previous day a day to remember. She’s still going strong, seemingly enjoying every minute on stage, while Bryan has occasionally been taking to a tactically-positioned chair, looking tired or, perhaps, nursing a hangover. Despite him claiming not to have been drinking yesterday, Olivia’s, “Yeah, right!” says otherwise.
After a brief break, the band return to the stage for the somewhat inevitable encore. “What an evening. What a weekend!” enthuses Bryan before playing Heroes Never Die with an incredibly powerful performance. The evening draws to a close with a song that, embarrassingly, I have forgotten, perhaps due to the fact that I was marvelling at the, if anything, even more powerful performance by Olivia who, at times, seemed to be fighting her emotions. Afterwards, with the band taking their customary bows, The Judge and another roadie showered them all with confetti, before the happy couple were able to take their own bows, thanking the audience with their wide smiles and, eventually, sharing a kiss.
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The happy couple.
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I have seen Mostly Autumn every year since 2008 but this is only the second time I have seen them perform away from York’s Grand Opera House. I much prefer seeing them in a “proper” music venue. Not only does it feel more like a rock gig, but it’s possible to get so much closer to the band, giving you the chance to see their performances much more clearly. Personally, this is the best gig I have seen by the band - it must have been the celebratory atmosphere tonight.
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Mostly Autumn – Bryan Josh, Alex Cromarty, Andy Smith, Olivia Sparnenn-Josh, Anne-Marie Helder, Iain Jennings and Liam Davison.
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Sunday 23 June 2013

The Temperance Movement–Fibbers, 19/06/13

I wasn’t going to go to tonight’s gig. I had thought about it but, with tickets already bought for the busiest few weeks of my gig-going “career”, this one hadn’t registered highly enough with me to convince me. Until, that is local troubadour Dan Lucas (you may have seen me enthuse about his work as Boss Caine) mentioned that I would probably like them “ a great deal”. That was good enough for me. The fact that my gig-buddy for the night, Shaun, told me that he had already seen them a few days earlier in Wakefield, been blown away by the performance and was probably going to see them again in Leeds was just icing on the recommendation cake.

Tour support Samuel Taylor, originally from Sheffield, was already on stage when we arrived from the pub, but I think he was still on his first song, so we hadn’t missed much. The former frontman of Dead Like Harry and roadie for Nerina Pallot, who he supported on her 2011 UK tour, has more than a hint of a Dylan-esque nasal tone to his vocals, although Taylor’s are better, less grating. (I’ve never been a big fan of Bob’s voice.) The acoustic guitar and mouth-organ only served to heighten the comparison. His set was comprised of a nice mix of songs – opening slowly before livening things up a bit and then moving on to a a nicely gauged quiet/loud combination. Another of those engaging frontmen, he explained the story behind A Friend And Accomplice – it being inspired by an inscription to a deceased friend in a walking book written by his father – and you could tell that it was a very personal song with the lyrics coming through as highly emotive. A much livelier drinking song followed and then another that was very reminiscent of Dylan before the set ended with its liveliest song, Waiting For Nothing. All too often (although, it has to be said, less so these days) acoustic guitar acts fail to hold my attention. Taylor, though, was different and interesting enough to keep me entertained and provided a nice start to the evening.

When I saw …And The Hangnails a few months back, they did very little for me. Brash and noisy just about summed it up and I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing them again. However, the start of their set, slow, quiet and atmospheric, however briefly before the power, noise and shouty vocals came in, grabbed my attention more than I expected it to. Maybe it was the smaller venue, or the more closely-packed crowd (maybe it was even a better soundman) but tonight’s set was a lot more listenable to than last time. I caught hints of 70s blues-rock in the vein of Led Zeppelin (with less subtlety), The Doors and, at one point, Muse. The music was still loud, with frantic, chest-pounding drums and loud vocals. Occasionally, the music gave the impression of a jam-session with odd little guitar snippets being dropped into the main tune. There’s an incredible amount of noise and energy for a two-piece band and I’m not sure whether it was the heat inside Fibbers or just a bit of showboating that led both Martyn and Steven to shed their t-shirts for Fear Only Fear, the last song of the set, but it did get an appropriate reaction from those further forward in the crowd than me. Meet Me By The River, with its more Bluesy feel, remains my favourite song of theirs (and the only one that I can work out the title of) but, despite the set being a bit relentless in its power and a bit too samey overall this was a much better and more entertaining performance than last time.

By the time The Temperance Movement made their way onto stage, Fibbers had filled up nicely and I was getting a similar feeling to when I saw Kodaline here – that of a band that I had only just heard of but who were possibly destined for great things and that, somehow, I’d missed the very beginning of a wave of interest. Initially mixing simple, instantly catchy rhythms with a massive amount of twitchy energy from frontman Phil Campbell – he sang the second song as though somebody was pumping a thousand volts through him - the first impression I got was of The Band. The third song, with it’s harder, heavier sound, saw Campbell producing vocals in style more reminiscent of AC/DC. There was some good-natured heckling from the crowd during a pause between songs had Campbell explaining, “We all shout in Glasgow” before giving us some quite stunning soulful and quiet vocals during Pride, the title track of the band’s EP. One thing that’s evident is that there is no showboating or overblown pomp, but Pride includes a subtle guitar solo which serves to build the song to a brilliant end section which, in turn, leads into Ain’t No Telling, another rockier track in which Campbell returns to his more gravelly vocals. Smouldering was more mellow and subtle with another lovely musical build-up. Unlike some bands, there is very little movement around stage by the guitarists and bass-player, primarily because each one is somewhat tied to a mic for backing vocal duties, but they all still manage to somehow give an impression of movement and a definite feeling that they are having a good time on stage. I don’t think I’ve seen many wider grins than that of Nick Fyffe (bass) and Luke Potashnick (guitar). There’s further evidence that the band are better known than I expected when the audience need little encouragement to sing along during Know For Sure, which segues nicely into the ballad Shine On and more audience participation. Microphones are despatched with entirely for the next song and Campbell, even without amplification, gives a powerfully expressive performance. Trouble returns to the heavy and hard sound, it’s an anthemic sing-along and the closest to grandiose we have got tonight, but it still manages to stay on the right side of overblown.Take It Back sounds like Blues-based Gospel Rock, if that’s even a proper genre “We’re gonna leave you with this one,” said Campbell during it’s introduction, but nobody is fooled and after a short time the band return to the stage to close out a performance lasting just over an hour and give us Serenity, which somehow seems to bring forth a combination of slide and steel guitar sound without either being in evidence.

The Temperance Movement have been described as “Next great rock and roll band”. Dan himself said they are “the best rock ‘n’ roll band in the country at the moment” and Shaun was enthusing about their sound and energy on the way to the gig. I can’t disagree with any of the above. I got the feeling that this is a band on the verge of something which may just bring great rock and roll music back for a new generation, while reminding us oldies of what it used to be like. And with the news that the band have this week signed up with Earache Records and that an album will be released in the Autumn, that “something” might be very close.

Thursday 20 June 2013

The Consortium Tour–The Duchess, 16/06/13

It sounds like a good idea on paper – bands pooling resources, effort and fan bases rather than competing. Touring together to build each other’s profiles and show that bands can work together to bring their music to a wider audience. Then the Consortium Tour hit York… and the hordes stayed away.
I don’t know whether it was because it was a Sunday, the first warm, sunny evening we had seen for a while or because it was Father’s Day. Maybe it was just that the music-lovers of York hadn’t heard of or didn’t know enough about the bands. Whatever the reasons, to say that the band members outnumbered the audience is a bit of an understatement. There were even faces familiar from many other similar gigs conspicuous by their absence. Still, it has to be said, the three bands shrugged off what must have been disappointment and gave their best efforts, both on stage during their performances and off stage supporting each other. Unfortunately, there was more (slight) disappointment to come.
Things started well enough when Ryan James took to the stage, resplendent in his steampunk hat and retro military jacket. Sitting on a cajon behind keyboards and surrounded by various pieces of percussion, Ryan introduced himself as the acoustic part of the evening before launching into a nicely varied and occasionally incredibly moving set, regaling us with tales, as well as songs, of past loves. Essentially a seated one-man-band, Ryan’s music comprised of sparse piano lines mixed with the various percussion and rich, deep and solemn vocals which in places had a degree of “showman” to them. His unintroduced opener was eclipsed by Breathe And Let Go, a “battle-cry to love” which was fast and lively, with an almost Country feel to it and hints of Cotton Eyed Joe in places. Machine featured more of a haunting piano sound while Jerusalem, inspired by an ex-partner who disturbingly and, from Ryan’s point of view, dangerously kept a dark secret, was a powerfully emotional mix of sombre prayer and tribal chant. Whoa, introduced with a story about homophobic bouncers, was designed to generate positive energy and the sparse crowd, helped by the other bands, managed to clap and sing along brilliantly – maybe it was the fact that there was so few of us that made it more difficult for people to drop out. Probably the campest cover version of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face (yes, really…) I will ever hear was followed by Over The River, Trouble and Digging Up The Mountain, the latter about being broke, needing a drink and being angry with God. All the songs mixed simplicity – there were no grandiose musical interludes, the lyrics were generally short and snappy – with complexity in their structure, with rhythmic changes seeming to feature in most of them. River Of Bones had a theatrical feel to it while Serenade returned a lighter tone to the set, a tone which continued into the humorous banter around how to produce the band names -Sankara is pronounced “Shankara”, “We are Not-ter-mine-us,” shouted Maria, from the audience” and “I am Rye-ann Jam-ess…” – and then the set ended with another unintroduced song, this time performed mostly a capella, except for a small amount of percussion and featuring some incredible yodelling that put the likes of Focus to shame. A nicely entertaining start to the evening.
With Noterminus on stage, the military jacket theme was continued and brought slightly more up to date by bass-player Scott Owen-Midlane’s World War One stylings. Without preamble, Maria Owen-Midlane’s wordless vocals built into a scream, with Scott taking over vocal duties just before the music burst into thunderous noise which all but obliterated the vocals which, in turn, looked as though they were getting stronger as the song went on. Yes… “looked”. I have previously enthused about Maria’s vocals, both live and recorded, but tonight they were swamped by the music. I’ve never felt knowledgeable enough to comment on whether the soundman is doing his job properly but, given that two members of tonight’s audience (both musicians) took to social media the next day to lambast his contribution, I suspect that tonight’s sound could, and should, have been much better. One person’s response that it’s difficult to get the sound right in The Duchess unless there are a fair few people to soak up some of it seems to hold water but it’s worth noting that this write-up concentrates more on the performance than the sound. It’s also worth noting that I struggled to hear the titles of those songs that were introduced. The second song of the set saw the guitar riffs drowning the vocals again, but this time those riffs were much darker. As the only front line musician freed from microphone duties, guitarist Paul Reynolds was giving an energetic performance, wandering about stage and engaging in a few power-stances. Not that Maria and Scott were lacklustre when not on their respective vocal duties. Muted Creatures is a towering, dark and moody song but unfortunately the spoken word sections which are so clear on Haselupker’s Ink, the band’s debut album, were just indistinct tonight. There was a lot about the performance that reminded me of The Reasoning, a band that Maria has provided backing vocals for, but of a time before Maria was a member and the line-up was quite different to what it is now. This was especially apparent during Fast One which, with its dual vocals, epic nature and crunching guitar line, was the best song of the set so far but only served as a springboard for the remaining two tracks of the set. They built in momentum and power,  ending the set  with some great dirty riffs, powerful drums from Vinden Wylde and what I can only assume were fantastic vocals.
Sankara have a similar line-up to Noterminus and, therefore, suffered a similar fate when it came to the sound mix. After a quick, “Good evening York”, Gareth Jones went straight into an impressively held wordless cry but, once the music started, his obvious vocal power was once again swamped. “We’re not a Micheal BublĂ© tribute band, this is how I choose to dress while in a rock band,” he explained after the first song, referring to his suit and tie. Full Flow, from the band’s debut EP Enigma, confirmed that as they launched into a full-fledged classic rock track and followed it with the even heavier In God We Trust, opening track of Guided By Degrees, their first (and current) full-length album. The opening of Enigma saw a change of pace and tone as Gareth moved to keyboards for a piano sound that was allowed to breathe and, being quieter, allowed his vocals to come through much more clearly. Eventually even this song surrendered to the harder rock sound, with the guitars of Jay MacDonald and Paul Wilson coming through stronger towards the end. Doll’s House saw Maria scurrying around the venue trying to find a way back onto stage to perform a duet with Gareth and finally, because of the piano opening and sparse guitar sections, her incredible vocals were allowed to shine in a song which, not surprisingly contained the best and most emotionally powerful vocals of the night, from both singers. There was more piano during Lullaby For A Lost Boy, a song about homelessness with it’s roots, I believe, in Gareth’s day job, but this it eventually gave way to another grinding guitar riff in the latter section. There was more heavy riffage in the next song, which was written by MacDonald and was “about shagging”. Sadly I didn’t catch the title. Chasing The Sun continued the heavy feel, with some brilliantly pounding drums once again from Wylde. (Yes, the bands share a drummer.) The set ended with a song which seemed, from his performance, as though it should have showcased Gareth’s powerful voice before a brief encore of somebody else’s song. It was introduced but, at that point, Maria wandered up to me to tell me I looked like somebody she knew and I didn’t catch the title. Nor did I recognise it. Overall, the mixture of riff-driven guitar tracks and piano led songs meant that this was a nicely varied set, somewhat different to what you normally get from a rock band.
Despite the sound quality, I thoroughly enjoyed this gig. The audience may have deserved better from the venue but the bands, despite deserving a bigger audience, came out and gave their all. I can only imagine how much harder that is than thinking, “well, if the punters can’t be bothered…” The upside of the lack of numbers was that I got to spend some time chatting to Maria (and another audience member, Steve Lord, who had made the trip over from Leeds) who eventually coaxed me back inside to get the CDs I had purchased signed by the bands. She and the others who found time to come out and say “hello” couldn’t have been nicer and seemed genuinely pleased that anybody had turned out to see them. These bands may not come back to York again, but at least I got to see them once.

Tuesday 11 June 2013

Black Lit City–Fibbers, 07/06/13

Three local bands for the princely sum of five English pounds? Always worth a punt, especially if you have seen and enjoyed two of them before. Even better, it actually turned out that there were four bands playing…

First up were The Valmores, the epitome of youthful enthusiasm fronted by Nathan Foley a young Elvis Costello look-alike. Their first song was a bit shouty and repetitive, but energetic enough that drummer Nathan Watson broke a drumstick during it. The two Nathans performed a brief jam session, filling time while guitarist Rufus Genn want off in search of a capo before continuing the set with a mixture of styles. The second song was a sort of punked-up 60’s pop, while I’ve Got The Blues, which about sums up the lyrics and the next track had more of a classic pop/rock feel to them. That latter saw bassist Andy Durham, up until that point possibly the most nervous looking person I have ever seen on stage, move to guitar and vocals which, admittedly, seemed to liven him up a bit. As a frontman, though, he couldn’t match Foley’s easy-going style and confident repartee with the crowd. The melange of styles continued after Foley re-took the mic, with the penultimate song opening with something bordering on heavy before scaling down to a more indie-rock sound while the finale had a very interesting structure. And with that, the shorter-than-advertised set was, inevitably, over too soon. The Valmores may not quite be the finished article at the moment, but they aren’t far off and there is a lot to like even now, especially for those (like me) who like watching drummers, as Watson made some impressive drumming look easy.

I struggled to work out how to categorise the music of Maginot the, let’s say, more mature band that were up next. Opener South America was somewhat funky and fast-paced while Chasing Ghosts, despite its quieter opening, ended up defying my expectations of it being slow and melancholy. Pretty Pretty, a “Monday-morning bus journey love song”, followed and I was still no nearer working out who they reminded me of. Then came “The Job Centre Song”, a light, slightly humorous, maybe satirical and, perhaps, a little political song about how staff in the titular establishment treat their “customers” and the first thought that popped into my head was “Billy Bragg!”. (Actually, I had previously had a hint of Frank Turner, but my experience of his output is limited to his appearance at last year’s Olympics opening ceremony so I wasn’t sure. He is listed as one of the band’s influences, though.) There was more humour apparent in Tip Of Your Tongue, a great song about music and simply enjoying playing it, a sentiment I could empathise with even if not from the same perspective. I wonder how many other songwriters can relate to the lyric “songs are life caffeine in my blood”? Thomas was another engaging frontman, both appreciative of the audience (who, it has to be said, seemed to be standing much further forward and being more attentive that your average crowd) and self-deprecating at the same time – “The problem with you all standing this close is that you can see that I’m basically playing the same four chords. This lot carry me so much.” Another personal song, this time Ink about being “f*cked over” by a friend was followed by Casino, with its background funkiness emphasised by a short bass solo in the middle. Overall this was a very enjoyable performance by a band I’ve not come across before. Maginot say they aim to get people dancing and thinking, with music for self-reflection and good times. Well, I’m not sure about the thinking, but they certainly brought a smile to my face and a kind of rhythmic swaying to my body.

The bands seemed to be flying on and off stage tonight. We were already well ahead of the published schedule when Samatha Cox’s haunting vocals started in what I incorrectly thought was a sound check until the rest of the band burst in. On paper, at least, Faraday Concept should have been my favourite band on tonight’s bill. They are the closest thing to a progressive metal band that I have come across in York – think the darker parts of Dream Theatre and the heavier parts of Opeth, but without Cox’s replacing the more growly tones employed by the latter. Sadly, tonight they were badly let down by the mix and, from where we were standing (right at the front) the vocals were barely penetrating the music. We could see that Cox, brooding and mysterious on stage, was putting a lot of passion and power in, but could hear very little. (Which was strange because the sound for the rest of the bands was pretty much spot on – maybe it was just that Faraday Concept were so different from the rest of them.) The music, on the other hand, was coming through loud and clear. Epic track followed epic track and, by the fourth song, drummer Josh Ridley was soaked in sweat and near collapse, pleading with Cox to “get on with it” as she took longer introducing the next song than he wanted her to. Ollie Brant’s guitar and Tony Ferguson’s bass combined on some pretty stunning and atmospheric instrumental sections, at times the darkness lifted a little and there were hints of Pink Floyd (although, admittedly, that could just have been because I had been listening to them all day). Seven Deadly Sins was the last track to feature Cox’s vocals before she left the stage to the boys for a short instrumental finale, ending a good set which could and should have have been so much better – my review of the last time I saw them makes note of how good the vocals were and they are definitely a lot clearer on the Time EP, which the band are currently giving away at gigs. Hopefully, they will be back soon and will be better served by the mix. 

It’s slightly ironic that Faraday Concept had a very different sound to the rest of tonight’s bill as the last time I saw Black Lit City they occupied the same slot on the bill and I said the same thing about them. A five-piece last time I saw them, tonight keyboard-player Dorin Botez seemed to be missing, which was a shame as last time out the keyboards and guitar seemed to be vying for lead instrument role. Maybe it’s a new line-up – the band haven’t played York for a while and tonight also introduced a new bass player. The “atmospheric, expansive songs” that I remarked on last time seemed to have been downgraded slightly to more snappy pop/rock songs. Somehow the impression was of a party band and Steve Lee’s apparent desire to come across as a Mancunian or, perhaps, a Lancastrian (his vocals had occasional hints of an Oasis tribute band while his general demeanour between songs reminded me a little of Peter Kay) didn’t help. It’s not that Black Lit City are a bad band – they played an enjoyable set and I certainly wouldn’t shy away from seeing them again – but there were, in my opinion, better bands (one on the night and one on paper) on the bill. Once again we were treated to a variety of styles from the soul/funk of the opener to the slower Beautiful Mind with it’s nice guitar line from Alex Staples. A touch of Blues/rock in the middle of the set saw the band stepping up a gear and was followed by the nicely chilled out Wintertime Blues and then something both lighter and faster (I really must start asking for set lists…) before the set ended with Paris To London, which didn’t sound quite as folk-rocky live as it does on Soundcloud.

Overall, tonight was another good-value gig of the sort that you used to get more of when I first started sampling the York music scene. To be honest, you can barely go wrong with four bands for a fiver, but it’s especially good when all four bands are good at what they do. Nice to see another reasonable crowd out supporting local music and also nice to see members of the various bands sticking around to support each other.

Saturday 8 June 2013

Sworn Amongst–Fibbers, 06/06/13

The impression we got when we entered a nearly empty Fibbers tonight was that, apart from us, most of the rest of the audience were members and friends of the bands. If I’m honest, I was only there for one of the support bands and knew nothing about the other two on the bill. In hindsight, I should maybe have done a bit of research.

It might have been the lack of crowd that made Scarborough’s The Antiquity seem reluctant to take the stage and kick things off. After finally being cajoled on, twenty minutes after the advertised start time, there was much shuffling about and lots of warming up from Gary Stephenson on drums before a recorded intro led into their first song. Well, I say song, vocalist Joe McEvoy seemed to be barking (or, perhaps, burping) into the microphone. There was little indication of anything that could be described as lyrics. This style carried on throughout the set, with McEvoy putting so much power into his vocals that he seemed to have to squeeze his body to get extra air out. I’m only guessing but I doubt that these were love songs and were more likely about death, destruction and the need for Strepsils the morning after a gig. The music was thunderous. There was a chainsaw sound effect in the middle of one song. At one point one of the guitarists looked to be doing something interesting, playing along the neck of his guitar, but I couldn’t pick whatever he was doing out of the mix. The blessedly short set of just five songs, all of which sounded very similar to me, was over almost before it started, although there was an unexpected bonus of a brief, somewhat dark, melodic section in the middle of the last song. Andy, who is usually better at pre-gig research than me, couldn’t help but laughing at the performance. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that The Antiquity are a bad band, they just play a style of music I don’t like. That’s not their fault, is it?

Apparently, it’s over two years since I last saw InSpades.Inc. “I think we might stick out a bit,” frontman Stewart King confided in me before they took to the stage. And it wasn’t just the shirt, tie and waistcoat worn by dapper-from-the-waist-up drummer P.G. Branton were a world away from the muscle-shirts sported by most of the rest of tonight’s performers. Ghost In The Mirror set the scene – heavy but not brutal with vocals that were your actual singing, rather than just growling. Andy’s feet were already tapping, a good sign. The music is definitely heavier than I remember but not excessively so, with some of the older songs being re-worked for this set. The previous melodic leanings are still in evidence, though, if not quite so prominent. Each song seems to include an impressive instrumental section and P.G.’s drumming gets more and more frantic as the set proceeds. When Sucker Punch is introduced, I mention to Andy that I like it, then find that I barely recognise it in its new form. It’s still a good song, though. Tempting Fate, with its brief, semi-doom-laden opening seems to epitomise the new direction, while latest single DNR, a powerhouse of a song in recorded form, ends the set in style, showing that metal doesn’t have to be simply a wall of noise and that being able to hear the individual guitar lines is possible.

I’ve learnt recently that, in the right circumstances, “cookie monster” vocals aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Sworn Amongst, with their Cthulhu-inspired stage banners, are practitioners of this particular style but, musically, they provide none of the subtlety of, for example, Opeth. Their music is full of brutal riffs and power-drumming but one thing is certain – however good fans of The Antiquity might think that band is, their near-neighbours from Hull are much more accomplished, have a more mature sound, bags more energy and a lot more stage presence. To my ears, they still produce noise, as opposed to music, but it’s a better noise. It’s heavy but there is music underneath. The problem is that it is relentless, all one level, with little relief. The band are tight and the vocals, while mostly growls to these untrained ears, give the impression that they contain lyrics rather than just sounds. On the rare occasions that songs were introduced, we were able to pick out the titles within the lyrics. There were occasional glimpses of noise-penetrating guitar solos but, apart from those, the entire set was an brutal onslaught with barely a break between songs, impressive in its intensity but, just like the openers, this style of music does nothing for me.