ManGoneBlog, SNUB II: Rock

SNUB II: Rock

@ The Lomax, Liverpool – Always The Quiet Ones, Guardians, We Were Beautiful, Arkaidence & The Blackhand

(Image: Always the Quiet Ones by Dan Bentley)

It seems that 2012 is going to be simultaneously the most difficult and the most important year for the local rock scene for a long time. On the one hand, Mojo has brought an abrupt and unjustified end to its usage as a live venue and we’ve of course lost our beloved Masque, the veritable “mid-way point” between the O2 Academy and the city’s myriad of smaller venues. On the other hand, Snub and The Lomax have responded in style with three consecutive showcases of some of the best Liverpool has to offer in the metal, indie and rock departments, respectively. This night, the rock night and final instalment of the saga if you will, has a damn near flawless line up of incredibly skilled and passionate bands…

First up, The Blackhand come armed with a powerful backline and a singer who must have downed a pint of purified glass before taking the stage. Think Alice In Chains if you took away all the heroin-infused gloom and you have a pretty good idea of what The Blackhand sound like. It’s often cheesy, always fun and most definitely rock n’ roll. Some stronger songs and they could become Merseyside’s finest purveyors of stripped down hard rock. Even without their keyboardist in tow, there is barely a fault to be found with Arkaidence’s set, as they plough through a genuinely enthralling collection of prog rock magnificence with just the right amount of geeky charm to keep the prog freak’s happy and all the groove to ensure no one gets scared off. Even with the sheer amount of riffs, inventive patterns and high notes flying through the air you never lose track of where you are in the song, and it’s a masterclass in how to make a song feel like a journey. It’s about time the city had a band this ambitious and imaginative. Just one thing though: Alex Nolan, bloody look at the crowd! I bow to your prowess as a singer but if you stared at someone dead in the eye while you were hitting one of those ungodly notes you could knock somebody clean out. Do it!

Elsewhere, We Were Beautiful are nothing short of incredible. It’s easy to make pre-conceptions about a band like this based on their chosen genre and a quick listen to some of the choice cuts on their Facebook page, but if you’re going to make assumptions, prepare to have them utterly pissed on when you finally get round to seeing them live, because you will not see another rock band with this much passion and heart anywhere on the local scene. They have it all: excellent songs, massive hooks, a tighter-than-a-nun’s-chuff live band, a fantastic image and, above all else, they play like they fucking well mean it. GO AND SEE THIS BAND.

Guardians don’t fare as well as the band that preceded them but there’s still enough here to keep you satisfied. Their songs are inoffensive and at plenty of points in the set even call for a sing-a-long, their past as Hippys On The Hill seamlessly crossing over into their new incarnation. However, it’s hard to get past the backing track that underlines what at first glance appears to be a very well oiled band, and all between-song banter being delegated to bass player Sean McMinn-Davies leaves a slightly sour taste in the mouth.

There’s nothing fundamentally bad about this band, all the right components are there, it’d just be nice to see a bit more fire in their bellies. And with that, it’s over tonight’s headliners in Always The Quiet Ones. ATQO are an incredibly different beast to the rest of tonight’s line-up, both in certain facets of their music and most certainly in their execution. Always The Quiet Ones are clearly not just out to play a balls out set of dark, riffy hard rock (which they undoubtedly and unequivocally do) – they want to be more than that. They’re not a production band yet by any means, but you can bet your last quid that that’s where they’re heading. The awesome make-up is only the beginning. Luckily, as anyone with a brain stem will know by now, it’s not a case of all steak and no sizzle, as Always The Quiet Ones pack their set to the brim with massive songs, oozing presence and carrying hefty bags of potential. Vocalist Blas Barragan Jr. has the most schizophrenic and versatile voice you’re likely to hear in any band on the scene and he is the epitome of the archetypal “crazy-eyed frontman”, but the man of the match award has to go to drummer James Lorenzo, who anchors a band of frenetic and incredibly accomplished musicians but at the same time makes it seem like he could make the whole thing explode into chaos at any second, given his psychotic mastery behind the kit. Truly brilliant stuff.

Anyone who was here tonight has had a glimpse of just how healthy the scene is even at such a strenuous time. Hopefully we can all work together and get these bands out of the city and onto greater things. They all deserve it, every last one of them. Buy EP’s, buy T-Shirt’s, buy tickets, write about bands, spam Facebook with band page links, walk around town with sandwhich boards with your favourite bands’ logo on. Do whatever. Just support your local scene. Let’s make Merseyside important again.

Words: Frank Ryan

Links:

Always the Quiet Ones:

http://www.facebook.com/alwaysthequietones

http://alwaysthequietones.com

Arkaidence

http://www.facebook.com/Arkaidence

http://www.myspace.com/arkaidence

Guardians

http://www.facebook.com/GuardiansUK

http://www.twitter.com/guardiansuk

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