NIGHTVISION, DECADENZE & PHOENICIAN
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, LINCOLN 06/04/09
Here is a nice little provincial review to show you all out there that there are still great gigs still to be found on the local pub circuit. I have to say this because, despite it’s less than glamorous setting, this is one of the best put together gigs I’ve found in any pub in recent years. Professional lighting and sound both crammed into a function room above and old pub in the shadow of Lincoln Cathedral.
This review is partly tied into last month’s review of tonight’s headliner’s debut album, as this gig is also doubling up as their launch party, so I‘m looking forward to seeing whether their rock ‘n‘ roll posturing transfers back to the live realm effectively.
First up however, are Phoenician. A wave of dreadlocked southern grove rock, funky bass lines and chugging riffs. It feels informal and fun, which is integral to the toilet circuit, and the audience appreciate the efforts enough to warrant “one more song” at the end of their set. The band do suffer from that unfortunate side effect of good musicianship coupled with a basic stage show, that results in long musical wandering in which the front man had to deal with the challenge of not looking idol waiting for his next cue. Phoenician have a little formula all of their own that flirts with the heaviness of Pantera while staying in debt to the funk of Rage Against The Machine by way of Sound Garden. However this did result in some songs sounding awfully similar to others. On the whole though, they deserved the audience’s polite applause.
Decadenze, Nightvision’s Rocksector label mates, are the main support. I have a sympathy for Welsh bands - their country is essentially represented musically by Bullet for my Valentine, Lost Prophets, and Charlotte Church - so it is an up hill struggle for any decent band of Celts. Stylish floppy fringes aside, Decadenze are nice and sleazy, relentlessly riffing, balls-to-the-wall rock topped off with a six string bass - that’s right… I’ve only seen one of those used by a band before now and that was at a gig in Wales by an English band. They succeeded in getting the attention of crowd that was now well on its way to forgetting sobriety. I made sure I grabbed their free promo disc to make sure they sound as good on CD as they do.
After impressing me with their recent debut album I did approach their performance with the attitude of “Ok, now do it live” and while there were peaks and troughs in the set, the troughs were only shallow and on the whole I came away satisfied. Nightvision had the heavy home crowd advantage, and will probably henceforth be given the mantel of “local boys made good”. There is a nice mix of songs I recognize from their debut, and the crowd are totally into it (the function room by this point is packed). The only real down points for me were two rather straight and lacklustre covers - one being ‘Remedy’ originally by Seether (which wasn’t a great song originally anyway) and ‘Slither’ by Velvet revolver, which only really falls short due to sounding somewhat thin without a rhythm guitar in tandem - for some reason though, this isn’t a problem when the encore offering of ‘Master of Puppets’ rears it’s head for an epic sing-a-long.
It’s a good exhibition of talent: three bands all at different levels of evolution - one at the demo stage, one working on their debut, and one just releasing their debut - almost a step by step ‘how to’ of rock ‘n’ roll. The bands aren’t without their foibles, but are still in the process of evolution, albeit each at different stages, and are all certainly worth keeping an eye out for when they appear in your local.
Sean M Palfrey
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