Gigs
7th October 2005
Flapper & Firkin, Birmingham
Bringing it back, like they always do.....
The Deer Hunter kicked the band's set off. It begins with a duo voice collaboration between lead guiatarist and frontman. Dan wails, "Solider!" while Tony beats on the bar with, "Love! ... Hate! ... Glory! ... Death!" and so on. Dan's microphone prevented his vocals from being heard so with a few timely taps it was recitified. However, by the time the metallic punkish chrous had kicked in with, "Don't you ever sell your pride!" it was all soon forgotten about. The band were well on their way and the room was well soaking up the atmosphere.
Next, after the welcoming gush of hands came the mighty Sunrise. It's a song that begins with Tony anxiously demanding the question, "Sunrise, won't you ever walk into my life again?" The audience nodded their heads as the song would move from hard poetic verse to soft lullaby chorus. As the outro waved, "If I leave..." over and over again there were surely minds wondering what else was to come.
After a formal introduction and with guns blazing they started to hit the audience with Bring It Back. The chorus rants, "Bring it back! Bring it back to me... yeah!" and along with the verse has a feel of The Buzzcocks to it. Polish and Slovakian girls were starting to line up at the front of stage bobbing away to the song. The gig was getting more and more heated. All was so well at this point.
As the song ended the drummer stood up at his kit. He beckoned Tony's attention and uttered something that made him turn back to the crowd looking for help. At the mic he announced that the stupid drum pedal had just broken so would any other musicians come forward to help? Nobody seemed to answer. The sound person snaked up to the stage and a small discussion broke out. Moments later, the sound person bobbed of the stage looking with a mission in mind. As the audience were droning with increasing restlessness Jaymes the bass player piped up to the mic with, "Hi. I'm Jaymes the bass player and I'm in a band." It's the thought that counts!
So, it was up to Dan and his acoustic practice to keep everyone entertained. John, on rhythm guitar, accompanied him as they performed The Drifter. With acoustic melody, gentle ryhthm and Dan's heartful voice the show started to pick up. As Dan hit the high and low notes with the same velocity the audience were being brought back to their previous mode and the atmosphere was being drained off all negativity. The band weren't going out like that, y'all.
The sound person timed their re-entry and jumped back onto the stage. With replacement drum pedal Glen seized and installed it like a desperate mechanic. Next, they broke into a new song that didn't even have a title yet. Sounding a bit like a rough cut old-school Red Hot Chilli Peppers type song the band commenced giving the audience a taste of something different. True, it was rough around the edges, but it was different! The sound of Newclear View could be heard here and there so with time and nurture who knows? Best just to wait and see.
So, over to Where The Wind Blows. The beginning sounds heavily like Neil Young's Southern Man song, but once the verse comes alive it is definitely anything but. "What's up Mary?" in the first and followed by, "What's up John?" in the second. The chrous takes a U-turn and with deep vocals bellows out, "Go where the wind blows, where the wind blows, where the blows." It could be said that it has a political, seedy ring to it.
Concluding the gig came the slap rock Tightrope. With the thrashy, Beatleseque first line, "Tightrope... Yeah! Yeah! We're livin' on a tightrope!" it paved the way for how the feet should move. Very bouncy! Those Polish and Slovakian girls were forming larger and larger semi Hokey-Pokey circles at the front of the stage. And just like Sunrise the chorus would complement the verse absolutely. "Ooh. I didn't meant to make you choose..." with low-key instrumentation was in complete contrast. Near the end of the song Dan and Tony were showing strong musical counterpoint and the building climax of drum and rhythms was sending the girls off their rocker. Faster and faster they would reverse and forward that would catch Tony's eye and bring a grin to his face. As the last chord struck out it was felt that nobody had a sad thought left in them. People were going to go home discussing happy things. The band had done their job once more.
Web author -
9th September 2005
Jug Of Ale, Moseley
Played at the The Jug Of Ale, Moseley with Lady Rain and AQUILA. No review available.
23rd June 2005
Flapper & Firkin, Birmingham
Success? Not a success? You bet it was!!!
The band kicked off at 9pm to a full room at the Flapper & Firkin pub, Birmingham. First on the bill was The Deer Hunter. All the chattering voices suddenly stopped and everyone sprang to attention as Glen ripped into the loud drum intro. A technical hitch meant that Tony wasn't able to sing for the first few seconds but, that was soon put right and he easily shrugged it off and picked up where the song currently was.
John and Jaymes, the two latest additions to the band were clearly making their mark. Jaymes, whilst playing bass, has this knack of looking starry-eyed at the audience and then slowly back at his own hands playing. I guess you could tell he was enjoying himself. John on rhythm guitar, on the other hand, prefers to keep his head down, but the experience and confidence of the man seems to shine through. It's like you know he's good. So just listen.
Song after song after song the audience would go wild and give a true thanking with their ecstatic loud clapping, boistorous cheering and even the occassional bit of jigging. Subsequent songs were Bring It Back, Sunrise, Where The Wind Blows, The Drifter and Tightrope. Considering this was their first gig as Newclear View it was hard to believe how strong they came across.
All of the songs were sang by Tony except for The Drifter. Lead guitarist Daniel sang this song and it gave a nice sense of momentum to the gig. Like a breather without being a breather. The first line of each verse seems to wriggle down into a mellow funk which demanded your attention and worked brilliantly for the gig. The song almost made everyone want to hold hands and sway to and fro. Nearly.
My favourite song of the gig was probably Where The Wind Blows. Taking pictures at the time was peculiar because everytime the chrous came in my stomach would hit the floor! Fantastic!
Finishing the set off was the punky, fists in the air, Tightrope. Tony would take this time to really seal the enourmity of the night so, when the frontman had finished singing, snarling, spitting and squaring, people were leaving with a happy bamboozled expression on their faces murmuring it's chorus. "What had I just seen?", "When can I see this again?" and "Why the heck aren't these guys big yet?" seemed to be the buzz in the air.
Score for the gig? 5 out of 5. And that's not just coming from someone who is a close friend of the band. That is coming from someone who genuinely felt rocked by the whole experience. Even my girlfriend looked stunned at times because she wasn't sure what kind of night it would have been. She looked mesmermised, like me.
Web author -
