I have been hearing a good buzz about Gyasi and took the opportunity to go see them before they become the huge new sensations they deserve too, the fact that Vieira And the Silvers were opening for them certainly helped convince us to go, this was a great double bill.
This is the third time I've seen Vieira And The Silvers and they are really getting much tighter, right from the off Fire was an uncontrollable beast, with the sax punching through the super funky bassline and guitars, with Vieira shaking and getting very demonstrative while singing. Current single Think took us on a deep trip with all sort of phantasmagoria chasing after them, probably Alex Harvey's sensational ghost.
Hands On The Wheel had a super funky over driven rock feel, with street preaching vocals getting more and more intense. TYTTD kept the power-driven funky rock foundations shaking, at times Vieira's demeanour reminds me of Kevin Coyne, but they are far more propulsive, blasting at us. Love And Hate is a song for our times, making clear that hate is a mechanism of pain and we all need to find ways to overcome hate and live with far more love in our lives.
They closed with Dead Weight that was totally rambunctious, I think it was the song where the bassist and guitarist switched instruments, giving them a slightly different edge but still it was about that Sax honking at us and Vieira's imperious vocals. I look forward to seeing them again soon.
After the break it was time for Gyasi a band who have T-shirts that ask the obvious question "How the fuck do you pronounce Gyasi," however you do it, you should use a real Nashville Tennessee accent for this 4 piece, who are all Glammed up ready to prove the hype around them is real. They open with Cheap High with super pretty lead singer Gyasi fully made up in a white and black sparkly suit covered in Aladdin sane style lightning bolts, stalking the stage as Ricky Dover unleashes his first Ronsonesque guitar solo of the night.
Gyasi strapped on his guitar for She Says beefing up the sound with Ricky using his slide skills to add the glitter. It was hard to imagine Gyasi ever being Tongue Tied, but very easy to imagine fans standing slack jawed gazing at him unable to speak, the song itself was a full-on glam romp with the twin guitars working some serious magic. YGTL or You Got The Looks was a perfect brash chat up line emphasized with a good dose of Bolan boogie.
Gyasi was then singing about being featured on the pages of a magazine as the Androgyne, confusing the less enlightened readers. He has so much swagger and the band were really impressive, I think this was one of the songs that Cole Bearden added some keys to, along with his super solid basslines. Teacher was the last song that Ricky Dover deployed his amazing slide on, his brilliant solo was great along with Sam Skorik letting rip on drums.
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Ricky switched guitar for Feed Your Face the second guitar gave him a slightly crunchier but no less glam sound, Sweet Thing was another song with only one guitar allowing Gyasi to climb the speaker stacks and stare down at us with feather boa wrapped around his now topless body. Gyasi strapped his guitar back on for a trip to Heartbreak Heaven he wasn't sure if he wanted a man or a woman, but they would both break his heart, this came complete with guitars behind heads and other showy touches ready to impress Baby Blue once more.
Did Lightning just strike or was this when Gyasi and Ricky got into some serous Bowie Ronson swaggering interplay, it was great fun to watch. They only needed one Guitar for Kiss Kiss that was rather tender, before Gyasi warned a potential lover not to waste their time as he was only 23, this asked a few questions and still had loads of glitter, Gyasi strapped back in for Godhead that was full on rip roaring glam magic.
They closed the set with the colossal anthem All Messed Up that had some great guitar lines and interplay, they dropped into Back Door Man and a couple of verses of I'm Waiting For The Man before chanting All Messed Up at the conclusion of a brilliant set.
They got a well deserved encore and came back to allow Gyasi to make clear that he's just a runaway on their song Bang Bang that really should be next to Kiss Kiss in the set to confuse older glam fans like me. They then finished with one last instrumental rave up that was introduced as Let's Go Crazy and they really did. Go see Gyasi if they come anywhere near your town before they are selling out arenas.
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