DON BROCO, MASSMATIKS.
Esquires Lev 2 Bedford. Friday 5th and Saturday 6th August 2016.
Friday 5th and Saturday 6th August 2016, will be known forever as the huge DON BROCO takeover of Bedford Esquires. This venue forms part of the bands UK nationwide tour. These include Manchester, Birmingham, and London, to name just a few. What Don Broco are doing on this tour is dedicating two separate split nights to play their two albums in full live glory and entirety. Friday features their debut, Priorities, (released in August 2012) while Saturday is given over to Automatic. The latter is very special for Esquires, as it is where the lads held its launch night. (Which incidentally was on Thursday 6th August 2015). This was in readiness for the release on the very next day. That was needless to say, a night to truly remember, as the champagne was uncorked post-gig and sprayed around! Much like everywhere else, the Bedford leg of the tour is doubly sold out. Indeed I gather the tickets went in seconds from their on line announcement and sale. Although we have a bigger venue in this town, Don Broco have never ever forgotten their roots at Esquires. They remember the very early days when they were first evolving as a band. Indeed anyone who read Rob Damiani’s Kerrang interview of last year will know of his love and respect for Esquires, together with its glowing appraisal of BAM’s keith. This demonstrates just why Bedford always gets a big shout out from the lads when they appear at an outdoor festival show. On both evenings, a queue and gathering of ‘hungry’ fans have congregated outside the venue. Some, many hours before the official door opening time of 7:30pm. Infact on Saturday, the long queue was snaking out towards the nearby shops. This solid show of fanatical patience is to be royally rewarded by two shows that absolutely certain will live long in the memory of all its attendees. It will mine and I have seen a fair few!
On both nights, Bedford Esquires hums with a heady expectation. The crowd are ready and wild with nervous anticipation of the arrival of its headliners, the one and only Don Broco. One thing soon becomes very clear for the band; home is most definitely where the heart is Rob, Simon, Tom and Matt stride on stage to a massive heroes welcome. As soon as they meet and greet the audience, all the pent up palpable feverish crowd anticipation is swept aside by a tidal wave of full on party spirit. On both shows, Don Broco deftly annihilate with a polished groove.
On stage, charisma is combined with a supreme showmanship swagger. Its pure undiluted rock n soul roll!
The talismanic Rob Damiani is the bands figurehead. He proudly displays a bicep or two on Friday, but is wrapped up conservatively on Saturday with a T-shirt. The crowd are up very close and personal and from my vantage point, it does look like a keen front row competition to touch and stroke this dashing vocalists tonsils. He even wishes a “Happy Birthday” to a delighted audience member. The band counteract any face to face spiky adulation with an added height advantage, which they gain with a few stage props. It means that they tower way above the frenzied, sweat soaked, hyped up crowd.
Priorities was the breakthrough album. It includes Actors, which for this reviewer is memorable for including “Biscuit” in its lyrical content I always liked that! Other highlights from the show include Back In The Day, You Got It Girl and Hold On. Many of the crowd were lucky enough to get tickets for both shows. Saturday once again saw a united audience, together in celebration. They pogo constantly, arms are raised aloft. For those who did twice party on the two gigs, Sunday will be a much needed day of rest.
Don Broco know how to blast out the right kind of anthems. They thrum with such electricity indeed. The quartet’s potent energy could almost be powering the giant strip lighting themselves! Every song on both albums is met in ecstatic, cheering fashion. It’s a playful riot, as Money Power Fame, You Wanna Know, Tough On You and What You Do To Me are performed amongst all the rest from Automatic. The perennial old favourite Thug Workout, just wraps up the encore ever so sweetly. They have and will play, much bigger sized venues on this tour, but nothing will match the sheer warmth, energy and intimate intensity of a home town Bedford Esquires gig. Ah ‘King Don Broco’ long may they reign supreme.
On both shows, D.B. were supported by a South London quartet called MASSMATIKS. It says a lot about this band, certainly I feel, given the circumstances in which they were making their Esquires debut, that they held everyone’s attention constantly, through both evenings performances. They even received some whole hearted crowd participation. Social commentary lyrics play a big part of Massmatiks songs. They are blisteringly spat out with venom by their angsty and cool singer. Mention must be made of 4AM. It’s their second single and it grew on me enormously. I absolutely loved it. A gritty true to life story such as “Gotta stop picking up these drunk calls, cause it’s getting boring.” As well as being exceptionally nice people, they are a new band (to me anyway) that I shall certainly be keeping an eye out for in the future. It was a double whammy of an introduction to them!
Review by Martin Stapleton. www.bedfordalternativemusic.co.uk