01 June 2010 (gig)
05 June 2010
The combination of rain and a Tuesday evening aren’t usually good news for bands on this rung of the gig ladder. So it proved for Trim the Barber who drew a small polite audience. They played the sort of indie rock that is quite in vogue at the moment and there’s not much to differentiate them from the others doing much the same thing.
Gringo Star came on stage and immediately their influences were there for all to see, and hear, and they are 100% proof American. They play an amalgam of garage, 50’s rock 'n’ roll, be bop, throw in some Tom Petty and Beach Boys and you have a sound that is at times very familiar, but has enough original touches to prevent it being derivative. This was good time music and they pretty soon had the crowd on their side.
Dead Confederate are from the Southern United States, and neighbours of Gringo Star, but that’s where the similarities end, musically they are light years apart. Dead Confederate’s is darker world, and this was a stark, brooding display of controlled sound and power. Huge grinding riffs, sometimes brutally heavy and played with an intensity that threatened to demolish the venue, and crush those who had the good sense and taste to brave the elements.
This wasn’t just a gloomy wall of sound though, they also showed a lightness of touch, and subtlety that many bands ignore in this cluttered stoner/grunge hybrid area. The keyboards, which were lost in the mix for much of the set, provided depth, and their southern roots, though not overt, added a gothic hue to the sound. At times they were truly mesmeric, locking themselves into a groove and creating soundscapes that wouldn’t have been out of place on a Tool album. They were, and are, that good, and if you missed them, tough.
