Vant, The Smoking Durrys, Big Nothing, Coloryde.
Lev 1 & 2 Esquires Bedford. Saturday 21st November 2015.
Tonight was a great advertisement for the huge pulling power of our local promoters, The Pad Presents. If you love the thrill of seeing a tribute band gracing the Level 2 mainstage, then I’m sure THE TOTAL STONE ROSES played everything you would expect to hear. A packed room showed just how much Bedford love to wallow in nostalgia. I witnessed their support band opening the proceedings, but more of them later.
My evening is principally spent in the dimly lit surroundings of Holy Molys. Standing right at the front, near the stack speakers, I’m disappointed to have missed a set by opening band THE HOWLING, I am in time though for some post punk grunge whipped up by BIG NOTHING. They are vocal basist Olie Campbell, guitar and backing vocalist Dom Notarangelo and drummer Alex Acreman. Formerly of the popular local blues rockers Horseman Shakes And The Draymen, Olie looks so much different now, as his face is coated with a thick and bushy black beard. His etched facial expressions tell so much, powerful vocals when he wants to be, fragile vocals when called for Falling Down hauntingly sticks in the memory. Their lyrics are relatively simplistic, but the songs are instantly catchy. One thing they do need to brush up on, is their between song patter. There are a tad to many times when silence isn’t golden and a pregnant pause occurs. Ode For Freedom is an instrumental delight, almost Sabbathesque, with distortion blazing a trail. A gentleman standing next to me sums it all up by sawing “Awesome” Big Nothing may sing “Listen it all, listen it all,” us punters are only to happy to do so.
Considering their spiritual home and base is in far off Cornwall, THE SMOKING DURRYS have in their own words become this towns ‘Resident house band.’ Beloved by Classic Rock magazine when they were a duo, the extra additional guitar work from Tom has broadened what original members Ash and Max were hoping to achieve. Clean cut frontman Ash is full of charm and pleasantries, when he is not charging and cranking his guitar to seismic levels. “Good evening, how yer all doing?” he asks. When the rabid guitarist takes full effect. I can see his neck veins bulge. Their set list contains so much variation. Drums are walloped relentlessly in the introduction to Crocodile Grin, Barking Dog is a virtual ‘bluesmagnatron,’ why that noise just “keep me up all night,” as per usual Feeling Fuzzy is the diamond in the crown. What a song, Ash leaves his colleagues and wanders amongst the dancefloor. Its been another high class set, from a band who can do no wrong in my eyes.
VANT stand proudly at the vanguard of the high profile explosive guitar based bands, that have emerged during 2015. They have made their name by such incendiary live performances. The Pad Presents deserve supreme credit for booking them. They are fronted by Matty Vant, a hugely talismatic frontman, who is Sunderland born and bred, but has relocated to London to function and push the band on. With Holy Molys being so direct and intimate, we can literally feel the vocalists breath, as Burners Lee is spat out.
Fresh from their recent DIY Neu Tour, Vant are most certainly not short on confidence. A recent article in Rocksound magazine urged its readers to ‘keep tabs’ on this band. Well I have and I’m here, as close to the front as I possibly can be to see them in the flesh. Festival appearances in the summer nudge at their potential spiky lyrics, often political, offer an insight into the bands collective psyche of what’s now happening in our mixed up world. Humour is also never very far away from Matty Vant’s lips. Dismissing the upstairs Stone Roses tribute band gets a laugh. He also offers us a sneaky view of Vant’s dressing room, (it’s the sit down bit at the left hand side of the stage) where we can see them tucking into their ‘Snacks.’ He also comments on the weather, “its cold” he exclaims, “you’ll freeze your bollocks off outside! If you have them of course!” During the gig, he urges the crowd to move to the music and not “huddle together like penguins.”
Possessing natural dynamics, they exude strong onstage bravado. They executed a set that included their recent singles The Answer and Do You Want Me. The former opens their set and immediately whets my appetite for the rest of their songs, which are an explosion of primal garage punk bangers, certainly ripe for the 21st century. Rhythmic firepower and guitar wizardry, we are drenched in volume. These fellas can sure write a mean eardrum buzz tune. This is a blast and a perpetual thrill a minute set. Vant are full of good old fashioned bolshy spirit. Their songs may only last for some two to three minutes, but they resonate constantly for hours afterwards. Music heals souls and mind and Vant have a complete rockwall medicine show, especially their own firebrand preacherman Matty. One minute he is rolling on his back on the dancefloor, the next vaulting up the ladder to the venues D.J. booth, to surprise a startled Mr. Pete Burrage! Parasites and Parking Lot are blitzed out in rapid fire style, while Do You Know Me could almost be echoes of seventies Exile On Main Street. The quartet looked to have thoroughly enjoyed the evening, they even offer up an encore. They ask the crowd to vote for the final song and Karma Seeker wins. On leaving the stage, the band encourage everyone to have a chat with them post gig, but they have one word of warning. “Firm up the shake,” Vant don’t like “Limp handshakes.” My closing thoughts of Vant? Well, what became crystal clear to this curmudgeonly old reviewer, was that all the hype associated with this band seems to be entirely justified. If a no holds barred guitar outfit are going to make a step up to the next level, then these fellas have a strong chance, given their performance in a less than sweaty, half full Holy Molys. They deserved a far bigger audience!
As mentioned earlier on in the evening, I saw an indie mod revivalist band on the mainstage called COLORYDE. A four piece including keyboards and harmonica, they sound like one of those generic ten a penny Manchester bands from 1991. The set was all early nineties stuff and not very special or inspiring. I can only imagine that the following on tribute band would have been even worse. Holy Molys with Vant proved to be a better option.
Review by Martin Stapleton. www.bedfordalternativemusic.co.uk