DUNDEE LIVE - BANDS TO WATCH!!
The Rise + The Revivals + Sonic Audio - Doghouse, Dundee 25-02-06
I last saw the Revivals in Aberdeen back in 2005 and was impressed - then missed the subsequent Doghouse gig, but got there tonight to find a band fulfilling all that early promise. They opened with a track called "CCR" built around some great guitar riffs and leads as the song took off on a kind of "AC/DC-meets-White Stripes" direction and a really strong opener, the vocalist having a kind of powerful bluesy style that really fires up. Following an equally rousing second track, the bandthen slowed things down as they went into ballad-esque mode, with some lush vocal harmonies, only for the song to build and become altogether stronger, in a sort of seventies faces manner. The next track struck me as an almost "new millennium Who" with a distinct Daltrey-esque vocal and some scorching but economical guitar riffing as the rhythm section drove it all forward - a hot track.
Up next, a track that starts as a close harmony ballad with acosutic guitar and harmonica outfront ona bluesy tip, before the band stokes the boiler and the song burns into this dynamic electrifying anthemic finale. Following this, they turn on the heat once more with a driving rocker before the next track goes into almost psychedelic grunge mode, kind of "White Stripes-meet-Nirvana" with plenty of swirling wah wah guitar, a searing guitar solo and howling lead work as the vocalist really delivers the goods - along with the opener, my favourite song of the set.
They finished with a track that opens with the forcefully flowing song part before, akin to the legendary "Green Grass And High Tides" track by The Outlaws, they launch into this scorching dual-guitar instrumental passage that just flies as the band ride into the night, before the song portion returns to finish with a more bluesy swagger and the end of a good set. In many ways they reminded me of a more contemporary, varied and less boogie-fied Georgia Satellites, but there's a whole lot more to this band than that, for sure.
I'd not seen The Rise for ages - well, if you've been following this concert review section, you'll know that - so, at last, I'd caught up with them, a month before they play in front of thousands of people at a festival in Mexico, as reward for coming third in the "Global Battle Of The Bands" compeitiion in the UK.
Tonight they played at The Doghouse in front of less than that (!) but, I tell you, the Mexicans aren't gonna know what's hit them, for tonight, The Rise blew the roof off!
Ina half hour or so set, they started on fire and then ascended. The Revivals were good - but when The Rise hit the stage, they just thundered into life. This monumental wall of rhythm guitar riffing, searling lead guitar and mighty rhythm section, just thundered into life on an opening track to which no rock or punk or indie audience could fail to be carried along with - this is music to which you just HAVE to dance.
It was phenomenal - and the best bit was, it didn't falter one jot. Vocals just glowed as the lead vocalist and bassist let rip with quite a range to his voice and the whole song had the room shaking. Up next was "What Goes Around, Comes Around" (dedicated to the English rugby team) and here again, the band just roared into life with hurricane force, and it's at this point you realise that there is simply noone else around who sounds like they do - I don't know what it is - I don't play an instrument, but it's almost like the bassist is with the guitars while the drummer is doing the propelling, or maybe all the band are doing the propelling and somehow managing to stick leads on top of it all.
Either way, this band delivers some of the most gut-kicking bass work, I've come across in ages, as it becomes every bit as vital ingredient as the guitars.
On the next track, "Come On", lead guitarist John ups the anti by playing electric slide while other guitarist and co-vocalist Alan keeps the riffs and riffing wall of guitar power going, as the drummer really lets rip and our bassist/vocalist goes nuclear, on a song that truly takes your breath away, that slide guitar burning holes in your brain to superb effect, as the whole thing once more simply thunders along.
You gotta love the band's stage presence too - there's this storm-force sound coming from that stage and the bassist/vocalist is really letting fly and moving while Alan on guitar is also really flying, meanwhile John on lead guitar, letting out this mighty wall of leads and riffs, stands there grinning and hardly moving, like a cross between Roger McGuinn and the lead guitar guy out of the Georgia Satellites whose name isn't Dan! Complete with new powerhouse drummer, this is a band that transfixes you when playing - no messing!
A couple of numbers later and we're asked to vote for "Come Together" or "I Am Your Leader" - of course, the latter wins, and even though the group have played it till they drop, they bow to the crowd and launch into this incendiary version of the track, with the vocalist howling, banshee-like, to extraordinary effect, realy singing the higher register leads and not missing a note, while the furious rhythms pound even harder and the swirling mass of lead and rhythm and napalm-soaked guitars delivers the goods to jaw-dropping effect.
A final track, taken from the debut EP if I remember rightly, complete with crowd-pleasing chorus, with the band delivering a stomping monster of a track with every ounce of passion and power as when they began the set, brought things to a rousing close, and the audience loved it.
On the evidence of a gig like this, there's not a rock audience in the world that wouldn't be up and dancing to these tracks from beginnning to end. But, as I said, there's not a band like them anywhere - their rhythms are almost industrial rock in terms of structure and power, while the bass work is explosive but right upfront. The dual guitars seems to be a seething arsenal of chain-saw riffing and searing leads but with an intensity that verges on hardcore. But through all of this are the actual songs and arrangements that are pretty Led Zep-ish in some respects and boogie with muscle and might.
Put all this together and you have one stunning band that have the potential to cross over into the must-have, must-see bracket of an awful lot of fans from indie and punk through to metal and rock.
Think you know The Rise? Think again! Awesome and then some........ Amazingly there was a headline act, in the form of Sonic Audio, a band from England with some connection with the Happy Mondays and who wowed an audience at Glastonbury 2005 on only their second gig or something like that. Anyway, they started off with this really strong couple of songs that mixed metal with indie and touches of rap to ear-catching effect, the thought that they'd have a hard time following The Rise, thankfully dispelled. But I have to say - and no disrespect to Sonic Audio - I was still coming down from The Rise set.
Anyway, they delivered a confident and strong set of tracks that featured some great lead guitar work, a set of songs that, while didn't particularly stick in my head on first hearing, did make me want to watch the set as it went on. They use dynamics as much as strength to achieve their effect, but if I sound vague here, it's just that I didn't really see where their influences were coming from. John from The Rise suggested a little like Kasabian, which I could see to a degree. The fact that they had a keyboards guy who'd left meaning that the lead guitarist had to inject keyboard fills rather than play the thing, may have accounted for what you felt were gaps when the tracks would go into more chilled-out realms.
The vocalist/bassist was great - he really carried the songs forward with a presence that made you want to go with them. So, not one of my best reviews here - you know as little about the band as you did before - but I'll put it like this - as an indie band with rock guitar leanings, if they were on here again next week, I would go and see them coz I do think they have something worth while going on there.
A great night of bands - but The Rise blew me away - to think what I've been missing!!
Review of The Rise 25-02-2006
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