02 July 2015 (gig)
05 July 2015
A hideously hot night in the Garage is par for the course at this venue regardless of the outside temperatures. That is was one of those yucky, sweaty London nights didn’t help thermostatic pressures inside. Not that this seemed to bother a lively audience who turned out to see John Garcia.
Two piece White Miles opened proceedings in a suitably raucous manner. The guitar and drums were loud and the duo’s metal well received. A good start. Mos Generator have a few albums to pull from and have some light and shade in the repertoire, so it was disappointing that they chose to just blast away for their set. It’s all good fun though their half hour was enough. Elder on the other hand could have done with longer. Their complex proggy/trippy metal is positively addictive working best when band and audience are on the same wavelength, which they are for most of the set, once the ever present chatter had died down.
John Garcia has a good, solid solo album out with some fine songs: 5000 Miles and The Blvd were two of the highlights of tonight’s set littered with Kyuss songs. The balance is maybe too biased towards the latter but there wasn’t an argument when they open with Molten Universe sort of acting as an intro for Gardenia and they close with Green Machine with lots of goodies in-between.
Much of this is tried and tested territory for Garcia and it could have been a going through the motions exercise but he has a cracking band with him on this tour, keeping things fresh. So the Hermano barnstormer Cowboys Suck is a rhythm section tour de force, and the whole band are a locked in for a swirling El Rodeo. As for the man himself he sounds fine as he swerves and ducks trying to avoid hitting himself with his mic. For a fleeting moment Elder looked to have the night, but the final, pulverising combination of July and Whitewater put paid to that.
