A Conceptual Rug

Friday 2nd March: After last week’s gig, over a quick pint before heading off home, Andy and I were bemoaning the apparent lack of the “four bands for a few quid” gigs that were so prevalent a few years ago, back when I first started taking an interest in the local music scene. So, it was with a modicum of relief that I realised that tonight gave us the opportunity to attend just such a gig, even if Andy was slightly put off to read that the bands involved were all some ort of heavy metal. I prefer gigs where the bands share at least some musical attributes – for one thing it means that the audience are more likely to stick round for the full gig rather than turn up for the band they may know and leave when the next band takes to the stage.

First up tonight were Rugosa, hailing from Halifax and comprising of Nicola Rainford (vocals), Jonathan Burr (keyboards), Stuart Moxon (bass, vocals), Thomas Riley (guitar) and Jamie Abbott (drums). Their short but impressive set included four original songs and two covers – Iron Maiden’s Trooper and Manowar’s Thor. For once we saw a band who didn’t allow the drums to overpower the music. In fact they were at times quite understated for a rock band. The first song, which I don’t remember being introduced, contained some nice guitar work but didn’t bode well for Nicola as her vocals were a little drowned out and strained. That was to change during the much heavier From The Shadows which included a well-balanced mixture of Nicola’s much clearer vocals and death growls courtesy of Stuart. The latter led to a post set discussion on the merits of the vocal style after which Andy, who is very much not a fan, admitted that they worked well in this song. Shadows also included more prominent keyboards, giving a more prog-metal sound reminiscent of Dream Theatre. Revolution had a pounding bass-line and very slick keyboards to guitar switch in it’s mid-section but the band really seemed to hit their stride with Within, with Nicola enthusiastically trying to get the crowd involved. Trooper had appeared in the middle of the set and Thor ended it, with the song’s challenging vocals providing us with Nicola’s best performance of the set. It’s a shame it had to end there, as the band seemed to be just warming up. Hopefully, we’ll see them back in York (and higher up the bill) soon.

As Dimension took to the stage, I realised that I had seen them before. (So much for research – I had thought all tonight’s bands were new to me.) When I saw them at the end of 2011, I noted that the band members seemed to be forever wandering about the stage tuning each others instruments. Tonight saw a much slicker performance but, sadly, one still lacking a bit of individuality between songs and, because of that, suffering a bit in comparison to tonight’s openers. As with last time, I struggled to hear some of the song introductions (and, it has to be said, vocals) but the hint of promise that was apparent then is starting to bloom a bit more. I vaguely recognised some of the songs from last time, although the second song of tonight’s set, which saw an abrupt change in style in the middle, was introduced as a new one. One Last Chance includes a nice guitar riff and Take Me Away, with its much slower opening, hints at the individuality I would like to see. It’s not that the songs aren’t different, as evidenced by the more “indie” sound of Miles Away, it’s just that they take a “wall of sound” approach throughout, with short (if any) solos not really breaking them up. The band ended their set with their best song which included a number of time changes and multi-vocals and further evidencing that the band are capable of much more than the rest of the set promises. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like Dimension, or think that they are (ahem) one dimensional. It’s more that I think they could be better.

When Andy and I were having the aforementioned discussion about death growls, we had no idea what was to be in store from Terra Omnia. A York-based band, they started their set with four members on the stage – Carl Barker (guitar), Shaun Wainman (guitar), David Walmsley (drums) and Imogen Galloway (bass) producing a wonderfully dark, doom-laden and melodic piece of music. Uniformly dressed in black the band had a well-defined image and things looked promising for the first few minutes. Then Fran Klempner arrived to take up the microphone and any hopes of me being able to produce an objective review went out of the window. I’m afraid that, despite the music, the vocals meant that there was no chance I was going to like this performance. We’ve all heard of “screamo” but a more accurate term for this band would be “grunto” or, perhaps, “cougho” as despite a few instances of a lighter touch, including when Fran was speaking between songs, most of the vocals just sounded like guttural grunts, prompting Andy to, at one point, comment that it was like listening to something from Jurassic Park. There was a lot of metal posturing from the musicians but Fran seemed to have worked herself up for tonight’s performance by perfecting the art of looking either as though she wanted to be somewhere else – anybody that is old enough to remember Kevin Turvey would have recognised her surly look - or that she had a headache (as opposed to giving me one). Despite my opinion, Terra Omnia garnered the biggest crowd of tonight’s four bands, so they must have their fans. Unfortunately, though, the whole isn’t anywhere near my particular choice of hot drink. Sorry.

Thankfully things vastly improved again with tonight’s headliners. Faraday Concept are from York and Driffield and the line-up is Rich Weston (drums), Alan Oakden (bass), Ollie Brant (guitar) and Samantha Cox (vocals). Cox has a great voice, a slightly enigmatic aura and a dress-style that brings to mind what Stevie Nick could have looked like in a heavier band. Great use of lighting gave her a washed out, mysterious look while emphasising her lipstick to give her a vampirish look, while the rest of the band almost seem to disappear into the background. Opening with a heavy drum and bass line before adding guitar and, finally, vocals, the band had me hooked from the start while the second song contained echoing guitars and more strong, if slightly indistinct (the bane of a lot of bands) vocals. Again song introductions were hard to hear, one particularly being drowned out by the Alan’s bass, but those that I did pick out were Seasons Of.. something and Game Of Fools, with its doom-laded instrumental leading into crashing guitars. Despite Samantha’s excellent vocals throughout, it was only the last song of the set, with it’s lovely change of pitch, that finally showed, if briefly, exactly what a femme-fronted band are capable of. Overall, this was a return to the individuality, inventiveness and slight progginess that had been lacking since Rugosa left the stage. Recommended.

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.