I arrived to this 5-band showcase at The Fiddlers Elbow, a venue I've not been too in ages, possibly since playing it with The Ice Mummies back in the 1990's, it hasn't changed at all really, as they still put on incredibly varied nights of new music, like this one with at least 3 of the acts deserving to be playing far bigger venues than this one.
Hide Takemoto was already on when I arrived and by the time I'd bought a beer, I was already struggling to believe the opening act was playing classical guitar on a very metal looking Ibanez while displaying chops that had me thinking of Gabor Szabor.
Things only got more astonishing when he switched to an acoustic guitar as the sound and tone he had as well as the astonishing movement of his fingers around that guitar sounded like he ought to be headlining the Royal festival hall or playing a classical set at The Proms, as he played a piece that to my ears had a western desert theme too it, I was transfixed.
Hide closed his set by playing a cover of Tommy Emmanuel's glorious hit Mombasa, he set about out tricking Tommy's original, as he got going in places loosening strings to get different effects, at one point his left hand resembled a Catherine Wheel as he got squalls of noise like The Velvet Underground's I Heard Her Call My Name, my jaw was on the floor that he isn't an huge act and was just the opener, as he was possibly the most talented guitarist I've heard live in about 20 years.
After a first act that was almost impossible to top, The Heat Inc. who I was actually at this gig to see, had the gauntlet laid before them, thankfully they rose to the challenge, right from the opening chords of Down In The City they were extremely loud, Visceral, tight and intense with Jon Dodd's vocals impassioned and in our faces as he made certain we all felt The Heat.
Polaroids had Maurizio Vitale drums driving the intensity as Jon made sure every breath counted, again I wondered how bands this good aren't playing for far larger crowds. Draw Blood For Proof tells a tale of Brotherhood that begins in 1963 and with regular guitar stabs from Marco Simoncelli advances through the years, as Jon tells us how much he loves you, it's howled with such precision you dare not argue with him or the band.
Little Knuckle Charlie is a song you can take more than one-way, whichever way you interpret it, by the end of a version like this it will be drilled deep into your brain, hopefully you'll be happy you encountered him. Your After Love Song seemed driven by Nicolas Rigot's bass riff, that grabbed us by the scruff of the neck and wouldn't let up while the drums never let up, we knew it had all been worth the heartbreak.
98 was introduced as the bands next single as it roared across the room with another riff that wasn't about to let up, until the mad musical breakdown, as it mutated straight into Raptors, so we knew to blame it on the devil once more, as Jon strutted around the dance floor and stage, deep intense totally focused.
Jon dedicated Are You Incorporated? To the Ukraine and all those fighting for their freedom from Putin's yoke, as they stood up for plucky under dogs and the little guy battling vast armies of uncaring corporations.
They closed with the bands heavy reworking of Suicides Dream Baby Dream that they take the right amount of liberties with, to make their own as Jon strutted around telling us all to smile it was hard not too, at the end of a great set like this.
After two opening acts like this things had to start going down a bit and Mark Shepherd, who was next suffered from having to follow the Heat Inc and Hide Takemoto, there wasn't much wrong with Marks set of solo acoustic protest songs, but he is just another protest singer, singing just another protest song or two, he began his set on a 12" string telling us What I Need To know and asking some good questions, his song for the cop 26 protests, World On Fire wouldn't sound out of place on a Extinction Rebellion fundraising cd, sounding in places like Pok. The Great Scheme Of Things made some good points but sounded rather workmanlike.
He switched to a 6-string acoustic for a cover I believe, of a song about hotels and motels and travelling the globe, next was his song about suffering from depression as Everything's Turning Black, that took us into the current malaise, how desperate it makes many people feel. He took us back to the bad old days with Don't Stop Walking Till It's Time To Run a song about walking home through the dangerous part of town where the local skinheads or yobs might attack you for any number of reasons. He closed his set with Bad Bad Man that almost felt like a headmaster ticking off some miscreant teenager rather than an assault on our idiotic leaders.
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Next on were Victor & The New Vintage a three piece who seemed to be lacking the key fourth member they need to make the band's sound really work, which in this case would be a turntablist to add some scratching and well-chosen breaks to the bands rap rock, that opened with Be Free that had a good few Hendrix style licks, Lose control had some super-fast rapping and free style flow with the drummer making a good job of sounding more like a Roland drum machine than a drummer in places.
Victor proved he needs help with memorable song titles as the next three songs were You, Baby and She Said, they were all about relationship problems of one kind or other and all felt like the music was missing something. Will You Be My Girl had great super fluid, super quick vocals, that could almost be scatted, as much as rapped, as the guitar did some blues rock things. Raging Fire turned the heat up but not quite high enough for this set to catch fire, they closed with Go Slow a bedroom drama with a lady trying to cool down her over eager beau, who she wants to take his time, all he wants to do is shoot his all, this was a good sweaty end to an ok set.
Finally, it was time for Tizane who had spent a good part of the evening walking around signing cd's of her new single Off The Edge, while preparing a merch table that had enough merch for a 500 plus crowd, she appears to want to be the new Ned's Atomic Dustbin, in as much as I counted 4 different t-shirt designs being worn by her fans and one member of her band.
As her PR got in touch with me the day after the gig, sending me the new single, I know that this was maybe the second or third time this line-up have played together, from the start her enthusiastic fans were going nuts as she sang about a Small World and not the Disney kind, as she reminded me of Alanis Morrissette or a less political Ani Difranco, in between songs she sounded a touch uncertain about her songs asking for feedback, she really should own songs like In The Dark a good tale with her vocals going from rather deep to high with great emphasis on the lyrics that were more on point than the band who were a little bit ragged.
She slowed things down on Waiting Forever Is Nothing a song that could be a big hit with the right production and promotion. Cherry was pretty upbeat and sounded a bit tighter than the rest of the set. They then did a good rocked up cover of Kylie Minogues Can't Get You Outta My Head that easily got the best reaction of her set. Running sounded more like a carefree jog than a full-on sprint.
Tizane introduced Off The Edge as being about to be released on the Friday and not at the end of October, either way it sounded decent, but not as good as the cd version does, although the guitar solo was pretty good. They closed with a new song Say Something that was barely complete and sounded like they had only played it once before, as no one was really in time sadly, if they get the chance to play it together 50 or 60 times in the next year I'm sure it will come together.
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