Category Archives: Live Music Review

Girl in the Garden Live at The Hob Staines

. Live Music Review . , , , , ,

‘Girl in the Garden’ is a youthful band that started life in late 2010. They recorded their first demo in 2011 at More House School, Farnham.

In December 2011 the band recorded their second EP  (at the Air Play Studios, Ashford.)    This cut included 3 news songs:  ‘KOL’  ‘Winning A Losing Game’ and ‘Submission’ and also included re recorded versions of ‘Left the City’ ‘Reflections’ and ‘Anthology’.

During the start of 2012, the Staines band played multiple gigs for Theory Project Revolution ( Woking)   and also played a fantastic gig at Thorpe Park to promote the new Swarm ride for Buckle-Up Promotions.

GitG

They cite influences such as:  Klaxons, Arctic monkeys, Manic Street Preachers, and Two Door Cinema Club.

GITG  played the marvellous Hobgoblin Staines venue on Saturday, supporting talented indie rockers ‘According to You’.

The young band played a bright, airy and pleasant set – gaining many new fans along the way.

We thoroughly enjoyed songs like ‘Left The City’ with those sparkling clear guitars, sleek lines of shimmering sound and a rueful voice from Jordan that is very reminiscent of Lou Reed – at his most introspective.

This song – like many numbers from GITG -  explodes like a piñata …   into a riot of exultant colours and candy pieces.

Or ‘KOL’ that is generously abundant, with a vocal line that claws itself  deep into your heart and writhes along to burrow into your brain.  Guitars from Tommy percolate around the stubby riffs, and the low notes of licorice bass from Jamie will give you a shudder.  The percussion, meanwhile,  is center fired by Connor – and this pushes the song along at a fairly snappy pace.

Guitars churn in opalescent majesty, and they heave around the central theme, creating an aquamarine treasure of lush textures and bright lights.

Very highly recommended !

Next show: Happy Landing Public House;  Clare Road, Stanwell, Staines
Saturday, 11 May 2013 at 21:00

- © Neil_Mach April 2013 -

Link: http://www.facebook.com/girlinthegardenUK

Kitten and The Hip Live at Boiler Room Guildford

. Live Music Review, live music surrey . , ,

Kitten and The Hip Live at Boiller Room
Image © Neil_Mach October 2012

One year ago, Ashley Slater met Kitten Quinn.

Ashley Slater is a UK based trombone player and best known for his work with Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) in the band Freak Power. Kitten is a beautiful and intelligent singer songwriter. Together, they write songs, hang out, and play mischief.

In February, they were having a chat, and Kitten advised Ashley not to worry about something or other. Their dance-floor hit ‘Don’t You Worry About That’ was born the next day.

Live, Kitten and The Hip are usually a quartet, with Kitten singing and Ashley taking to the trombone and providing ‘scat’ style improv vocals. Kitten is a natural front-woman, at once mesmerising and seductive.

At Guildford’s favourite music venue, The Boiler Room, 4th October 2012, the band played their debut single “Dont You Worry” ( which has been signed to Hed Kandi and is promised major success in the clubs.) This song has gleaming vocals with a hint of sexy varnish around the smooth jazz edges. The cheeky trombone adds an impudent spiciness to this swing time Lindy Hop dancing track.

At the Boiler Room, Kitten & the Hip played without drums, and there was, in my opinion, a slight over-reliance on their prerecorded backing tracks. Songs like ‘Don’t Touch the Kitten’ have a lush “swing era” feel to them. Kitten’s cleaned out pipes really shine… chromium plated diamond studded style. The lilting ‘Swingle Singers’ sounding backing vocals adds some fine razzmatazz . And the ‘bone rubs up against the cat’s plate-glass voice – creating a heady static electricity to the fizzy pieces.

With their boogie woogiman connections and Manhattan Transfer style evocations, their material is clubland polished. If you go mad for the “Swing house” thing, this may be for you.

 

- © Neil_Mach October 2012 -

 

Link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kitten-and-The-Hip

First Aid Kit Live at The Boiler Room

. Live Music Review, live music surrey . , , , , ,

First Aid Kit is a Swedish folk duo composed of sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg, whose close vocal harmonies and woodsy, folk-influenced songwriting take influence from the likes of Fleet Foxes and Joanna Newsom. Hailing from Enskede, a southern suburb of Stockholm, the siblings began composing songs in 2007.

After playing a concert in Nashville the duo was approached by Jack White who requested them to record a single for his Third Man Records series. In February 2011 the duo collaborated with Bright Eyes during their performance of Lua. In January 2012 the band released their second album, The Lion’s Roar, produced by Mike Mogis. The album was critically acclaimed upon release and went straight to #1 in Sweden on the week of release and #35 in the UK.

First Aid Kit came to the superb Guildford venue The Boiler Room (sold out) with songs like their very special piece ‘The Lions Roar’. These have a Dylanesque quality to them- not only lyrically but also with wallowing, haunting chord structures. But you can often find a harshness, a grit and a determination in their exquisitely rendered songs. No matter how sweet the girls look, or how honeyed those immaculate confections are, this pair are bold and rugged and they have a knowing glint in their eye.

‘The Lions Roar’ is a song that criticizes religion – but empathy is also shown for the ingenuity of the human race. It is recognized that, where we need to seek comfort – we will look for it, and find it. In the best ways that we can. Klara’s voice breaks at unpredictable times – reminiscent of those country and western singers who sometimes you lead to a choke. And Johanna’s tresses billow and sway like shimmering plumes. You soon realise that these girls are true performance artists. The “Lion’s Roar’ leaves you almost inconsolable, with feelings of isolation, rejection and pain. Yet, somehow you smile. Because life is beautiful. That’s all there is to it.

A similar song that can also be enjoyed as a metaphor for gaining strength in isolation is ‘Hard Believer’, which was written after reading Richard Dawkins’ book ‘The God Delusion’ and starts out as an explanation – offered to an uncompromising believer- that sets out the sibling’s own belief system. The vocals are arranged against a soft combing of delicate strings. As the harmonies start, you can almost feel the wind on your face – and see the wild geese flying into a winter moon. Yes, as they say, “time is tough”. But, as the keys are starting to fall in tone, and notes drop fatally lower – like autumn leaves tainted by an early frost – the descant becomes even more soulful and less expectant. It is at this stage that the song can truly be released- into a full and thriving understanding of the nature of life. It’s a position that we can take and we can understand – no matter our belief system or adopted religion.

Two cleverly crafted cover songs were also included in the Boiler Room set. The gently rhythmic ‘When I Grow Up’ (written by The Knife’s Fever Ray (Karin Dreijer Andersson) and, later, “America” by Simon & Garfunkel, which the pair performed ( for Paul Simon) at the Polar Music Prize Ceremony 2012 this year.

An amazing, and spiritually uplifting evening of fine performance.

– © Neil_Mach September 2012 –

Link:

http://www.facebook.com/firstaidkitofficial

Rietta Austin – Live in Staines

. Live Music Review, live music staines . , , , , , , , , , , , ,

You might expect a cynical or even a jaded offering from an accomplished pub singer and hard-working funk-rock / soul performer like Rietta Austin. But what greeted the music lovers at Staines Riverside Club on May 26 was a show of exquisite charm and unprecedented freshness.  Rietta was as bold and as sweet as any flush faced  teen performer you may see on telly. Yet  more polished and professional than any them!  A most unlikely “prima donna” indeed.

Flying into an amazing tear-away set – opening with a sweeping version of ‘Knock On Wood’ the ‘Bright Lights, Big City’ singer gave us a glossy, yet youthful, show at the Riverside Club.  Full of totally vivacious energy and warm heartfelt joy , the curvy singer seemed to be literally bursting with a lusciously infectious spirit.

Rietta is credited with being the first artist to open the O2 Arena in London headlining their Community Event June 20, 2007. [ http://youtu.be/D26whvywMG0]
Coming from New Zealand, and continuing to have many professional and personal ties with her home continent of Australasia, her voice has been described as “Truly a voice that must be heard.” – Kirk Pengilly, INXS

After telling the Staines audience that she would play a few of her own works, sprinkled with some choice covers, she sang the deliciously melancholy Stevens/Ross number ‘Wildflower’  followed by a virtuous cover of fellow kiwi Sharon O’Neill’s 1983 hit  “Maxine”.

By the Jon Bovi number “Livin’ on a Prayer”  (produced with great gusto and fire), we had already witnessed  her magnificent and legendary four octave vocal range. And an exciting wardrobe malfunction during a lively session of tambourine, was narrowly avoided when Rietta, looking down,  realized that she was about to be undone.

This was during one of a pair of numbers when the singer allowed the impeccably funky band some time to ‘go their own way’. Another such piece was the eloquently arranged Hendrix number ‘Little Wing’ where Tom Walker (Guitar) played out a solo of such amazing quality that he managed to gain his own warm ovation.

But it was Rietta’s sweetly booming voice that the punters had come for. From so low that you thought the earth beneath you would crack open, to higher than the highest conceivable highs – like a tiny songbird – her range is undefinable and utterly magnificent.  Each thrilling song was gloriously realized by a vocalist who is renowned, quite rightfully,  for her sensuality and her highly charged stamina. Sensational.

© Neil_Mach May 2012

Links:

http://www.riettaaustin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rietta/109666580268

Subsource – live at Boileroom, Guildford

. Guildford, Live Music Review, live music surrey, Live Review . , , ,

A doomed and condemned cyberpunk generation of damp Surrey urbanites turned out in force during this weekend’s wet & windy conditions to party with their favourite cross-over band. Subsource are not punk, neither are they drum’n’bass. They’re not modern indie rock. They are not dubstep nor metal – they are an amalgam of all of these styles. A truly holistic sound. Theirs is the sound of justice and conscientious inclusiveness. But, more importantly, they drive their audiences wild with their hysterically energetic live sets and their blistering hot musicianship. We were at the superb Boileroom venue in Guildford to witness this sensational act.

Promising some bombastic pieces such as the recent single ‘On My Video’ (created as a result of the riots in London and railing against the lack of values / worth in a consumer society) this song goes giddy with those spraying & wallowing splash-bass beats, strained to-the-max vocals and gigantic proportions.

Subsource are also famous for their re-smashed covers, clocking up thousands of internet hits by re-treading old songs by the likes of RATM and SOAD. One of these, ‘Breed’ (Nirvana), is a pelting sand-storm blast of sounds that will make your eyes water. It is an effervescent vortex of energy that pulls you down into its depths, whilst you are left crazily fighting for breath.

We especially liked the band’s latest work such as ‘The Feeding’ (from the brand-spanking-new ‘Generation Doom’ E.P. ) with it’s pendulum of rhythms swaying one-way, then the next.The spots of sound are ripped away like sticking-plasters, only to be re-locked and wedged into gaps elsewhere. But the piece centres around a well-spring of golden sentiment and a giddy ‘Feeding’ chorus. This vessel may be cracked and stained, but it still holds the juice in. Take some!

Our favourite new song is ‘Molotov’ with beeps and sparks of electronic energy and squeals of pain, as those lacerating guitars take hold. This is razor-sharp and full of throated grunge. With ‘Kurt Cobain’ style vocals and a series of hugely successful riffs … any metal fan would be proud to have this in his collection.

Or ‘Kill The Thief’ which introduces the audience to an ambient side, of low oscillations, which spit along amiably before the full majesty of the show really takes hold. This then becomes regal. It is power – but wielded for the good of all.

Moving towards a memorable climax and looking forward to a storming version of the Queens of the Stone Age standard “Feel Good Hit of the Summer ” we suddenly lost all sound – suffering ‘technical difficulties’ that nearly put paid to the show. Apparently a brand new amplifier performed an act of ritual suicide. And so Boileroom was left silent. After some helpful advice from the audience, like “Turn it off and turn it back on again” and “Try giving it some red bull, it normally works for me” the band reluctantly withdrew back stage for at least 30 mins, whilst a replacement amplifier was found.

Back on stage to a rapturous reception, Subsource seemed a little subdued, and the mob certainly seemed calmer – “We can’t see any sweat on the crowd in the front” screamed out front-man Stuart – and the party got going again.

And what used to be filthy, dirty dub is now becoming so heavily tinged with metallic ideas that one delighted onlooker exclaimed “It’s like watching Gary Newman crossed with Pantera – it’s like dub-u-metal – I love it.”

© Neil_Mach April 2012

For more information about the Surgery Productions ‘Dubumentary’ Susbsource film visit:

http://www.thesurgeryproductions.com

Grab the ‘World of Tanks’ ‘Molotov’ track by visiting

http://www.subsource.co.uk

See Subsource at Redfest- 20th July at Robins Cook Farm, Redhill, Surrey

http://redfest.co.uk/

Attention Thieves on Rampage in Staines

. Live Music Review, live music staines . , , , , , , , , ,

Attention Thieves operating in Staines was the stark warning. And an ominous bucket of ear-plugs greeted the audience members flocking to The Hob to see these amazing Reading based rockers.

We were at The Hobgoblin Staines for an exciting evening with the band, and we were already anticipating a pretty unforgettable time. “This is gonna be loud!” Said one grinning patron as he checked over his ear defenders. ”But we are fortunate to have the boys in town.” He smiled.

The four-piece band recently opened the new ride – Swarm at Thorpe Park – giving them some great exposure- and also providing a link to the riverside town of Staines. Big Cheese magazine said ““There is no doubt that the coming months will see (the band’s) popularity sky rocket.”  And given what we saw of the band at the Hobgoblin, we are inclined to agree.

With numbers like ‘You’ll Be The First One’ the boys entertained the lively crowd. Stitched together with grizzled ebony-tinged guitar sounds, and rhythms of the most incredible intricacy, this is one hellishly hypnotic song. The verse is gradually unfurled by Alex (vocals and guitar).  And the scintillating chorus is a jamboree of colours and textures, as ear piercing sounds ( Hag on  Guitars) rush up and fly, like streamers in the sky.

‘Can’t Say’ has bruising bass notes provided by Ryan (bass guitar) located inside a maze of tantalizing rhythms and textures, packed full of mystery and false direction. Masterly percussion by Sim (drums) are interrupted by moments of quiet introspection, allowing the stunned audience to take a quick breath before another monster guitar assault. This song peaks in a thundering climax.  It is astonishing and strident stuff. No, it’s not for the fainthearted. But this is the kind of sum and substance that legends are made of.

Attention Thieves are now on an extended tour of the UK throughout May and into the summer. Check their facebook page  http://www.facebook.com/AttentionThieves/ to find a date and a venue near you.

The band can be seen playing live at Redfest of July 20th…..  So we recommend that you catch the band there, before they embark on their European tour in September.

© Neil_Mach April 2012

Link:

http://redfest.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/AttentionThieves

Papa George and Micky Moody – Live at The Riverside Club, Staines

. blues, live music, Live Music Review, live music staines . , , , , , , , , ,

You couldn’t get two more talented bluesmen together than this. Rock guitar wizard Micky Moody (Whitesnake) along with classic ‘Blues With a Feeling’ guitarist Papa George at The Riverside Club Staines. Micky Moody seated slightly loftily on the glittering stage of the Staines Club, vaunting his Les Paul, and Papa George, slightly lower, embracing his custom steel guitar.

“Well, are you ready for this?” George asked the crowd, the excitement already building. A warm round of applause followed. “Right, then, lets move on …” And we went straight on a trip … starting with the warmth and glowing hypnotic genius of “You Can Love Yourself.” ( contemporary Delta blues artist Keb’ Mo’)

Clearly, both artists are masters of the guitar – but the voices are also impeccable. As we approach “Jesus on the Mainline”  (trad: but normally associated with slider Ry Cooder,)  Papa George’s voice is darker, more whisky and dry whilst Micky’s vocals are finer, they seem stretched-  they are harder.Together, these elements create a magical potion. Crowd participation was encouraged gently, without becoming uncomfortable. As I looked around the club I could see almost everyone was happily singing along to the chorus.

The atmosphere was relaxed and unpressured.  And you felt that you were witnessing two of your favourite artists jamming away in your own lounge. Such is their easy-going style and their friendly light-hearted manner, it is as if you are enjoying an evening with friends. And that’s how it should be.

Included in the set were at least a couple of Papa George’s own compositions, including one of my own favourites “Broken Mirror”. It is at these points that you realize how skilled these musicians really are. Their improvisations are amazing. Both guitarists consistently demonstrated a mastery not only of the blues guitar, but also classical and flamenco guitar. The finger tapping percussive style of Micky Moody was particularly fascinating.

Songs like “Sailin’ Shoes”  (written by Little Feat guitarist Lowell George) allow the partnership to flourish. Here the intricate patterns created by the splendid finger-picking from George, surround the sweeter notes soared up by Micky.This song allows the duo to explore new undiscovered territories – all the while branching out with fresh sounds – whilst the audience happily goes along for the ride.

Papa George is a first-class vocalist with a creamy dark chocolate voice that smothers you in those deep molasses.  Micky Moody is a snake-charming smooth handed guitar player and a talented vocalist. Together they played a concert that was uplifting – almost spiritual …. what a night!

© Neil_Mach April 2012

Links:

http://www.papageorge.co.uk/

http://www.mickymoody.co.uk