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.

Bright New Stars

Saturday 8th October: I have to admit, I was torn tonight. One of my favourite bands had moved up to headline a gig at the Duchess while another, newish band were playing Fibbers. I had only read about Vega a few days before I realised they were due to appear in York and that single page article (in Classic Rock Presents AOR magazine) had got me interested enough to want to see them live. And so it was that I decided to head off to Fibbers. After all, I have seen Morpheus Rising almost every time they have played York and there will be opportunities to see them again in the future.

My first impression on arriving at the venue was that I had somehow mistakenly crashed a crèche. Quite often I (with or without the rest of the gang) am one of the oldest at a gig but it’s rare that I could easily have been a parent of most of the audience. I suspect most of the early attendees were there primarily for the first band, who were just starting when I got there. It took me a little while to get my “support act bearings” as this band didn’t seem to match up with the description of the first act on the bill. It turns out that they were Sonic Tractor, presumably a late addition to the bill. Comprising of Steve Lawson (guitar, vocals), Cal Harrison (guitar, backing vocals), Adam Inglis (bass) and Arthur Newell (drums), they started with a riff reminiscent of Aerosmith and strong drums which all but drowned out the vocals and. Unfortunately, as the song went on, it all seemed to me to get a bit muddled. Admittedly the vocals got stronger and the songs seemed a little more structured as the set went on and the guys were pretty good musicians, as evidenced by covers of Knocking On Heaven’s Door and I Believe In A Thing Call Love (during which Steve pulled off a more than fair impression of Justin Hawkin’s vocals). Their own songs were varied enough to be interesting but, to my mind, they lacked something. Maybe I was just being unfairly prejudiced against the apparent youth of the band, although they have been around for more than a year. Or maybe it is just that they need to polish up a bit, perhaps working on a little stage presence – during an extended period when Cal was retuning, Steve didn’t really seem to know how to keep the audience engaged. Overall, not a disastrous start to the evening, but I’ve seen better. Although it has to be said that they know how to finish a set, ending with a song that, although the vocals were once again impossible to hear, contained some great music.

Unfortunately, drowned out vocals and retuning seemed set to be recurring themes of the evening, as Dimension also suffered from both. Formed in early 2011 and comprising Tom Bennett (vocals, guitar), Mark Robinson (lead guitar), Steve Kane (bass) and Richard Wappett (drums) they are billed as an alternative rock band working to create an original sound. Apparently, that mostly means heavy and loud with vocals that might as well have been non-existent. (It’s either my ears, the venue’s soundman or the bands themselves and I’m not willing to put my money on any of those options.) One Last Chance was a more melodic number than the opener, while the fourth of the set featured a staccato guitar sound that was, to me anyway, original but not very pleasant to listen to, which is a shame as the song contained a nice solo. This was followed by a song whose quieter moments allowed us to hear Tom’s vocals much more clearly and which had more melodic guitar work coming through the somewhat brash rhythm section and another during which Tom played by tapping the neck of the guitar, producing a slightly weird and interesting sound. Ultimately, however, there was little apart from the added gimmicks and effects to distinguish the songs. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen musicians wandering about the stage retuning their own and each other’s instruments during songs, especially not by ear. Again there was a hint of promise with Dimension that tonight didn’t quite seem to fulfil. Best song of the set was one I think was called Miles Away, but I even struggled a bit to hear the introductions (which might mean that the poor vocals weren’t the fault of the band).

There seemed to be a bit more maturity to Black Lit City, a blues/indie/rock band from York made up of Steve Lee, Alex Staples, Rob Yates, Dorin Botez and Lee Johnstone, and seemingly doing their best to look as far removed from a rock band as possible. I didn’t catch many hints of blues in their set, but I did hear entertaining, atmospheric, expansive songs, with a fuller sound. Keyboards and guitars both vied for lead instrument and combined to produce very pleasing music which in no way swamped the vocals which were, in their turn, strong and clear. The songs were varied. One was rock -  with the guitarist’s fingers blurring as he furiously stroked the strings – another more poppy and another (Too Much Inspiration) very much 50’s Rock ‘n’ Roll. In one case genres were combined genres into something that sounded like a heavier version of a 60’s pop song. The whole set was a good mix of well-crafted songs. The only problem with this set was that it didn’t really fit in with the rest of the bands playing tonight.

By the time Vega took to the stage, in a very similar manner to how Morpheus Rising do so, Fibbers had filled up nicely and I found myself towards the back of a reasonably large and very varied crowd. In places it reminded me of the times I have seen Elliot Minor, with women of a certain age chaperoning their sixteen-year-old daughters. Except, in this case, the daughters hadn’t bothered turning up… A four-piece (Nick Workman – vocals, Tom Martin – guitar and bass, Dan Chantrey - drums and James Martin – keys) melodic rock band with, I think, two members originally from York, Vega play live as a sextet, joined by a bass player and second guitarist. Having said that, Tom is only credited with lead guitar on three of the twelve tracks on their debut album, with the rest going to either Nick Horne or Vince O’Regan. I’m by no means trying to be derogatory by saying that, if it were still the 80’s, I could see them opening for the likes of Def Leppard. Much like prog, melodic rock seems to be going through a renaissance at the moment and Vega, with a sound reminiscent of latter-day Bon Jovi, could well be at the forefront of the genre in the UK. Most of the audience seemed to already own the debut album (last year’s excellent Kiss Of Life, which I bought after the gig) or at least knew the songs, including the obligatory sing-along and shout-along sections and this was one of the biggest crowds I had seen at Fibbers for a while – not bad for a band which seems to have a minimal internet presence (the official site, linked above, is still under construction and the Facebook page wasn’t easy to find). Somehow, though, word has got round and, on the basis of this performance, rightly so. Memorable songs, great tunes and a very charismatic performance all added up to a great set which somehow seemed more suited to a bigger venue than Fibbers.

Whether I made the right call in my choice of gig tonight will forever remain unknown. I do know, however, that I ended up seeing one band liked a lot and another that I liked even more. Hopefully Vega, who billed tonight’s gig as a hometown one, will return to York again and hopefully, next time, they won’t clash with another band I like.